


Whatever Goes Up Must Come Down

by orphan_account



Series: Bobo's RWBY Fic Series [3]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Sex, Multi, Pregnancy, Unplanned Pregnancy, self doubt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:49:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25174900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Weiss thought her life was already crazy enough, but aside from becoming a mother soon, Weiss had become worried about one thing that hadn't haunted her until now, if she truly was different from her father. And if she wasn't, how was she going to fix it?
Relationships: Ruby Rose & Weiss Schnee, Weiss Schnee & Henry Marigold, Weiss Schnee & Neptune Vasilias, Weiss Schnee & Whitley Schnee, Weiss Schnee & Whitley Schnee & Winter Schnee, Weiss Schnee & Willow Schnee, Weiss Schnee & Winter Schnee, Weiss Schnee/Neptune Vasilias
Series: Bobo's RWBY Fic Series [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1823722





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Another one of my RWBY fics - I'd recommend reading the last two parts for this to make more sense

Weiss had found life interesting already on its own, but she couldn't even compare that to how chaotic her life had gotten within the past half-year. Weiss had been stressed out from working so much one time, she got very intoxicated at a dinner party and well, Weiss had already concluded she'd done some not okay things. That was already obvious because Weiss was very much so not a virgin. In fact, it was worse. She had gotten pregnant because of it. Then she had a mental breakdown near Christmas and watched as her two best friends almost broke up but then ended up getting married. On top of that she still ran the SDC and had been going on missions before she'd become pregnant.

But today was going to be a little more free-flowing. She was currently sitting in her car about to drive to a dinner to meet up with Neptune since the two had decided to reconnect after they'd ran into each other at Blake and Yang's wedding. Weiss had been extremely nervous about talking to him again, but she knew it could be a good idea. She cranked her car and backed out of the parking lot of the SDC Headquarters and headed down to the restaurant they were meeting up at. While on her way there she jammed out to a few songs on the radio, singing along with the music. Weiss still did sing, which was kind of surprising, but she did sincerely love singing, so she still would sing at concerts if she wanted to, instead of being forced to.

Pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant Weiss flung open the door to her car and stepped out. She grabbed her purse and walked to the front door of the place and stepped inside. She walked up to the line that was for getting seated and noticed Neptune was sitting down waiting for her, not in line. She waved to him as he noticed she was there and stood up and walked over to wait in line with her.

"Hey, Neptune!" Weiss said, hugging Neptune, "It's good to see you."

"Hey, it's good to see you too," Neptune said smiling, "You really want to eat here?"

"Yeah? I come here all the time." Weiss paused for a moment, "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I just thought you wouldn't like seafood." Neptune noted, "Not that I don't like it, just..."

"Neptune, it's water in a contained space in the middle, it's never busted, that glass is too thick to even crack." Weiss sighed and shook her head, "You'll be fine."

"If you say so!" Neptune admitted defeat as the two of them reached the front of the line. A hostess greeted the two of them.

"How many will be eating?" The hostess asked.

"2 please, preferably away from the water tank," Weiss replied, keeping Neptune's fear of water in mind.

"Alright, could you follow me?" The hostess said, grabbing two menus and heading towards the side of the restaurant that was furthest away from the tank of water in the center of the restaurant, where a lot of the fish and other marine life is caught freshly from and cooked for the restaurant. The two of them sat down at a table and the hostess gave them their menus, "Would you like to start with any drinks?"

"A water please if that's all right," Weiss said, Neptune seemed to contemplate for a moment before finally saying his drink.

"I'll start with a lemonade!" Neptune said, to which he turned back to Weiss once the hostess left, "So. How are you and your little one?"

"Good, I think. I don't know, I'm still stressed out about work but at least I don't have to go on missions anymore." Weiss said, "Ruby's visiting me this weekend so that's a thing."

"Oh coolio, you two must be great friends," Neptune said, as the waitress came back and gave them their drinks. Weiss took a sip of her water and sighed. Neptune gave her a worried look, "You alright?"

Weiss stayed silent for a moment, "I just... I'm worried about her."

"Why?" Neptune asked, "She seems happy whenever I run into her on missions."

"She spends a lot of time here, she has nothing better to do now. She can't legally even be a huntress until she's 21. She always told me how excited she was to finally be able to go on missions with me but now, I don't know if I'll be able to as soon as October 31st rolls around." Weiss took another sip of her water as the waitress came back to the table.

"Would either of y'all like appetizers?" She asked.

"Nigri shrimp would be lovely if the shrimp could be cooked can you do that?" Weiss said.

"Mhm! We can use cooked shrimp instead of raw shrimp and for you sir?" The waitress turned to Neptune.

"The same thing she's getting, but my shrimp can be raw." Neptune politely said.

"Alright, I'll be back with your appetizers in a few minutes!" The waitress said, walking off back to the kitchen. Weiss looked over and stared by the door at another table for a moment. The guy sitting beside the door looked oddly familiar to her. She shook her head turning back to Neptune.

"Sorry, thought I recognized someone." Weiss apologized. After a while, the nigri came and Neptune and Weiss, and the two of them had continued talking. Mostly about missions the two of them had recently done, and some gossip the two of them had picked up on. Eventually, their actual dinner came. Weiss had a large bowl of rice while Neptune had gotten fish.

"I would think for someone who hates water, that you would hate fish too," Weiss noted. Neptune just let out a laugh.

"Yeah, I just don't think about where it comes from most of the time, I just enjoy it!" Neptune said, taking a bite out of the fish. Weiss began to eat her rice as well and after a minute a fourth of the bowl was already gone.

"This is good!" Weiss said, continuing to eat the rice.

"I thought you said you came here a lot?" Neptune tilted his head.

"I've never had their rice though, so this is a first!" Weiss said, taking a quick sip of her water once more.

"So... I've been curious, but how did your mom take it when she found out you were pregnant with someone you probably don't even know's child?" Neptune asked. Weiss simply looked away in a bit of a wince.

"Well... I didn't tell her... She didn't find out for a long time. She found out the same time the rest of the world finally found out." Weiss sighed, "She... Called me and she sounded pretty upset. She said I could've told her, and that I would be a horrible mom if I didn't get my communication skills up to check. Though I might as well note... She was kind of drunk..."

"I was at a party and she was there and Whitley had made a reference to how I seemed to have put on a bit of weight to which Winter got mad at him and immediately corrected him, telling him I was pregnant. My mother overheard and she started yelling about it. Let's say it got caught on video... To which lots of media talked about it and the rest is I guess history."

Weiss took another spoonful of rice and swallowed it as she recollected that night.

That night was an annual party for the major companies and organizations for the kingdom of Atlas. Weiss, of course, was there, Winter was there in place of General Ironwood, as he had not shown his face in public for 3 years, and Willow and Whitley had both been invited since they were also both Schnee's.

The family had somewhat better of a relationship now then they had a few years ago, after the arrest of Jacques Schnee back when all the drama with Mantle had happened and caused Ironwood to lose his mind. But Weiss had moved on from that and so had the other Schnee's. Weiss, Winter, and Whitley were all in the middle of a conversation while Willow was off doing her own thing, already heavily wasted, as she still had severe drinking problems.

"Whitley, you seriously should have seen father's face when I pulled my scroll out and exposed what he had been doing! It was honestly priceless!" Weiss had snorted. Whitley had always been curious to what the hell had happened that night so Winter and Weiss were elaborating on the subject.

"Father also had tried to run but Weiss stopped him with one of her summons," Winter noted, Whitley winced at the subject of glyphs. Weiss had recently been made aware that Whitley had not been able to unlock the semblance yet.

"That sounds interesting, but might I add how different everyone is now?" Whitley said, "I mean I'm taller, Weiss has definitely gained some weight, and Winter well... Winter stopped putting her hair up as much!" Whitley proudly said Weiss immediately turned to stare at her little brother.

"Excuse me, what's that supposed to mean?" Weiss asked. Whitley just shrugged.

"Have you not noticed? You look more... How do I put this without it being offensive..." Whitley paused for a moment, staring down at Weiss, "You look like you could be pregnant."

"Whitley, she is." Winter quickly corrected, but immediately came to realize she'd just said something she wasn't supposed to say. Whitley looked up at Winter then back to Weiss.

"Wait..." Whitley took a moment to process the information Winter had just slipped, Weiss noticed their mother coming up to see what the commotion was when Whitley said, "Weiss when the hell did you get pregnant..?" Weiss noticed Willow had walked over to the group and she stayed silent, but Weiss could tell she heard.

"Weiss? What words did your brother just utter?" Willow immediately joined the conversation.

"Erm... Nothing, mother..!" Weiss said Willow didn't accept that fact though.

"No I heard it, the hell do you mean you're PREGNANT!" Willow yelled, obviously not in the right state of mind, but it caught the attention of everyone else in the room, which caused silence, "Weiss Schnee, you didn't even tell your MOTHER about this? I thought we moved past distrust! If you can't even communicate with the family you have now, then hell that unborn child of yours is going to have one hell of a mom, and I thought I was bad myself!"

Weiss stared down at the ground as her face slowly begun to turn red, not only had her brother and mother found out about something she had been wanting to tell them herself. But her mother had just basically told an entire room what was up with her. Winter looked down in rage, most likely at herself from what Weiss could tell as the room stayed silent.

"But, before I get even more angry with you than I already am. Is that even true? Are you even pregnant?" Willow said, putting an accusatory finger in Weiss's face. Winter looked at Willow and moved her finger.

"Mother, get your finger out of her face." Winter sighed angrily. She looked to Weiss who was starting to shake with nervousness, to which Winter took Weiss' hand and squeezed it lightly.

"Alright fine, I admit it... Yes... I am..." Weiss admitted Winter hugged her when she felt tears fill her eyes. Weiss noticed the crowd in the room had stayed silent and shifted towards her and Winter who was still hugging her. Willow stayed silent herself but eventually walked up to be face to face with Weiss.

"Weiss Schnee. As your mother, I guess there is only one thing I can do." Willow slowly came closer and hugged Weiss along with Winter now. Whitley sighed but soon joined the family hug. The crowd around begun to start talking again as the room calmed down. Weiss smiled in relief as she embraced the hug from Winter, Whitley, and Willow.

Back in the present Neptune had already finished his fish, and Weiss had finished her rice. She looked down at her now empty bowl and sighed.

"I think I need to go..." Weiss said, she felt like she wanted to cry again. Winter had apologized for accidentally correcting Whitley, but Weiss was mostly upset about that night in general because she'd been very stressed because of it. Neptune glared at Weiss with worry in his eyes.

"Are you alright? I can walk you to your car if you need to." Neptune said.

"I'll be fine, I just want to go home," Weiss said, standing up and pushing her chair in, the waitress had come over and placed the bill. Before Weiss walked off she paid for the meal with loose cash she had on her. Once she'd done that she walked outside to her car, and once she got inside the car, she began to cry. Lately, she'd become so paranoid about everything she'd been doing, that she'd become very much so a whole lot emotional then she would've normally been. After a few minutes, she yawned, pulling out her scroll to call Winter. The scroll began to dial Winter as Weiss felt more and more tired.

"Hello, Weiss. Did you need something?" Winter said when she picked up.

"Can you drive me home? I'm really tired..." Weiss mumbled.

"Weiss, I can't understand you, you're mumbling again," Winter replied.

"Can you drive me home? I think I'm going to fall asleep." Weiss said, more firmly this time.

"Oh, where are you?" Winter asked.

"That seafood restaurant near the academy," Weiss told.

"Okay, I'll be there in a few minutes. Don't you dare fall asleep on me though." Winter said as she hung up. Weiss just nodded her head lightly as she closed her eyes and waited for Winter to arrive.


	2. Chapter 2

Weiss quickly rushed to her left as a blast of rainbow on rollerblades flew past her. Weiss gave a thumbs up to the rainbow, who just happened to be Neon Katt. Flynt was in the back watching while Neon had helped Weiss be able to dodge a bit better since she'd become pregnant. Neon skated back over to Weiss.

"You're really doing great with this training! I honestly don't see why we keep doing it, continuing it if you're doing good already." Neon said as she leaned onto Weiss' left shoulder.

"You do realize our boss is the one telling us to do this, Neon. Plus, you said you wanted to teach someone the skills I originally taught you back with Octavia." Flynt said, walking over to them.

"Yeah, but let's keep also keep in mind, Octavia is with your mom because we both can't be there often for her, because we both work crazy hours." Neon grumbled, "I seriously need to get Winter to ask the General if we have to keep doing this."

"If you want to you can, Neon. But I'm thankful for the extra bit of training." Weiss said, turning to look at Neon directly in the face, "And I do enjoy being able to do something aside from sitting in my office all day, or being at meetings or parties."

"Aww, but parties are so great!" Neon quickly stated, "You can never get bored of parties."

"Say that to me when you're a CEO required to attend dozens of parties a month." Weiss sighed, "You want to do one more round?"

"Alright, give me a second though, I'm going to make a phone call outside if you might as well excuse me." Neon grumbled, skating out of the training room. Weiss sat down on the floor of the room, to which Flynt just glanced at her.

"You gotta admit, it's funny how similar your situation is to ours," Flynt noted. Weiss turned to look at him, her eyes very puzzled.

"What do you mean?" Weiss asked. Flynt chuckled a little before he also sat down.

"Well, you do realize Octavia wasn't planned. Both me and Neon got pretty drunk and well, Octavia." Flynt said. Weiss knew little to nothing about their daughter Octavia. She only knew that she was the same age as Summer and that she often stayed with Flynt's mom.

"Oh, I see your point," Weiss said. Looking over to the entrance to see both Neon and Winter walking back into the training room.

"Weiss, I have some important information I think you really need to know." Winter said, gesturing for Weiss to follow her, "You two can go back to work, Weiss and I are heading somewhere else." Weiss tilted her head confused as she stood up and walked over to Winter, to which Winter walked off making Weiss have to follow her.

"Well," Weiss finally said after a few minutes of following her, "What is it that's so important?" Winter stayed silent until the two of them came outside of Atlas Academy.

"Weiss. It's kind of two things, one of which I won't mention yet and the other I can say to you now." Winter said, turning to stare directly at Weiss, "But please don't tell anyone yet, it's not public information."

"Okay, what is it?" Weiss said, being sure to pay close attention as her curiosity grew.

"Well..." Winter paused, looking up to the top tower of Atlas Academy, "General Ironwood has finally decided it's best he step down." Weiss could feel her jaw slowly dropping.

"He finally figured out that he already destroyed his reputation?" Weiss said, snorting in amusement.

"That's not all, you do realize what that means though," Winter said, smiling as Weiss slowly realized what was going on.

"So, you're being promoted to General AND Headmistress?!" Weiss said, to which Winter replied with a nod. She squealed as she jumped up to hug Winter, "I'm so happy for you, Winter!" Weiss exclaimed as they hugged for a moment.

"Yeah, it's pretty good to think about." Winter chuckled a little, "Though remeber you can't tell anyone about this, not even Ruby. It's not going to be publically announced for another month, and then he'll be stepping down in early June."

"This is amazing, Winter! After everything that happened, with Ironwood losing his mind and the whole Winter Maiden incident not working out..." Weiss noted, "It's great that it'll finally be paying off in the end." Winter smiled a little and said.

"Well, we need to head to the local park." Winter said, glaring away from Weiss, "I'll tell you why when we get there."

"Okay?" Weiss said, as Winter began to walk to the faculty lot, where Weiss had her car parked, "We're taking my car though."

"If you insist." Winter simply said, as she stepped into the passenger seat and Weiss got into the driver's seat. Cranking the car, Weiss turned on the radio and drove off to the park.

After a few minutes, the two of them arrived at the park that was connected to Atlas Academy. There was a lot to do there, like ice skating, paths to walk, and most well known a large training space that Atlas Acad students typically trained at. Weiss stepped out of the car along with Winter, who immediately set off to go wherever they were going.

Once Weiss noticed Winter slow down towards a park bench, she saw someone already sitting there. She felt as if she recognized the face of the person sitting there, but she could not tell. Winter sat down and greeted the man and Weiss sat down beside Winter.

"Thank you so much for coming, Henry," Winter said. It all clicked for Weiss, to which she immediately yelled at Winter.

"Wait why the hell is he here?!" Weiss asked angrily.

"It'll make sense in a minute I swear, you'll actually be relieved I think once you figure it out. Now if you don't mind I will trade spots with you." Winter said, standing back up.

"Winter, I love you dearly but I am not sitting beside him. I'm sorry, but you're staying there." Weiss defended herself immediately to which Winter simply shook her head and began to finally talk in more context.

"Well, you two know each other I suppose beforehand, which I already kind of guessed..." Winter sighed, "I really did not expect that, but I guess that does make this whole situation a lot better than it was before. I just don't know how either of you will react. Please just promise no murder..."

Weiss stared up at Winter very confused up at Winter, which she and Henry eventually exchanged a glance.

"If Weiss doesn't do anything, I won't either, I don't wish to hurt her," Henry stated.

"Agreed." Weiss firmly stated, "Just tell me why the hell we're here?"

"I figured it out, Weiss." Winter said she stayed silent for a while, "This will come off so weird, but I can assure you I'm not lying." Winter paused again for a while, "Weiss, Henry. Please know from the fact you two know each other this makes this a lot less awkward..."

"Just get to the point, Winter," Weiss said.

"Alright fine, I'll just say it." Winter said, before mumbling something else, to which Weiss only picked up one word and that was 'Henry'.

"Winter, you're mumbling, I'd expect you to be more professional," Weiss said, raising an eyebrow.

"Listen, I..." Winter began to panic again before finally exploding into a sentence Weiss didn't expect to hear, "Weiss, you and Henry are the parents to my niece or nephew!" Winter sighed in relief when she finally said what she had been trying to say. Weiss felt her gaze fall slowly down from Winter to Henry. This man, according to Winter, was the father of her unborn child. Fantastic. Great. Just what Weiss needed to know.

"I... That's not possible, I haven't been to a party Weiss has been at since October..." Henry quickly said, definitely not believing anything Winter had just said.

"It's definitely possible because that would be the precise time of conception..." Winter said, looking down awkwardly. Weiss looked back up to Winter as tears slowly filled her eyes. She stood up quietly as her fist shook.

"I need to excuse myself, I'll be back." Weiss very calmly stated as she rushed off to find a restroom. Once she found one she flung the door open and entered a stall and locked the door. She fell to the floor as her eyes flooded with more tears of frustration.

'It's perfectly possible! I didn't even notice him there before I was drunk, I guess we both were drunk because he seems to be as confused as I am... How could I be so stupid to let him do that? Now look at me, I've run away from another of my problems because of my ignorance...'

Weiss just slowly leaned into her knees as she sat against the wall and cried softly.


	3. Chapter 3

Weiss' eyes were still filled with tears as she heard a knock on the door to the bathroom stall. She lifted her head from her knees and waited to see if the person would say anything. A few moments later a more loud knock came on the door.

"Weiss, it's me." Weiss recognized Winter's voice from the other end of the door. Weiss quickly stood up and wiped her tears as she slowly opened the door of the stall. Winter was standing there looking particularly upset herself.

"Winter, what is it?" Weiss asked, her voice slightly shaking in the process.

"Weiss... Are you okay?" Winter said, tilting her head. Weiss stayed silent as Winter leaned in to hug her.

"Winter! I'm fine!" Weiss stated, ripping from her arms.

"No, Weiss. I can tell you're not." Winter said, while Weiss audibly sighed.

"Winter, can we talk about this in private?" Weiss requested Winter turned away not responding.

"Weiss, there's a reason why I know," Winter said. Weiss felt her mind slowly start to question. How in the name of the Gods did Winter even know? Sure, Weiss knew she'd been looking but she'd never thought how she knew. Weiss noticed Winter's eyes had dulled.

"Well, then how do you know? I'm all ears!" She said, her mind becoming more and more confused by the second. Winter stayed silent but shakingly sighed.

"You know I was the one that brought you home that night, right?" Winter began, "Well when I came to find you, I kind of... Walked in on you two..."

Weiss felt her face grow hot, she glanced at her elder sister as she processed and felt almost a million pieces float together. Weiss remembered now. She had been the one to ask Henry, in a desperate measure from what she could recall. They hadn't even considered any sort of protection and both of them had never even done such acts with anyone.

She noticed Winter had been looking regretful this whole time. Weiss felt her anger grow. Winter had flat out lied to her face, and if that wasn't infuriating, Weiss had been untold of the fact she'd even lost her virginity even before she found out she was pregnant.

"Weiss... I'm sorry-" Winter tried to speak but was cut off by Weiss.

"I don't wanna hear it!" Weiss yelled, "You lied to me! I thought you trusted me, especially with that sort of information that was very significant to me!"

"Weiss, I'm sorry! But what was I supposed to tell you?" Winter covered herself.

"I still deserved to know that, this entire mystery could have been figured out a lot quicker than it did if you'd TOLD me!" Weiss grumbled as she balled her first. She also noticed that Winter had tried to hug her again, but Weiss couldn't stop herself as she flung her hand towards Winter's face. The sound of a slap echoing across the bathroom. Weiss felt her face heat up even more as she processed what'd just happened, but it was too late. She looked and saw Winter slowly turn red in the face and her expression go from upset to very, very furious.

"Winter, I-"

"No. I need a minute." Winter stammered angrily as she quickly rushed out of the bathroom. Weiss watched the door fling closed and the warmth of tears fill her eyes once more. Weiss knew one thing though, she had to be strong. She retraced what had just happened. She had just slapped her sister. Something Weiss would never even think of doing while in the right mind.

Damnit.

Look at her now. Standing and shaking like a scared little girl because she couldn't control her emotions properly and overreacted. She'd done something to the person who had been hurt the most with that sort of action. She even had known that. For years she'd known that. Weiss always remembered Winter sobbing her eyes out when she came to check on Weiss after taking the blame for her. The guilt was slowly getting heavier, but Weiss kept her emotions in check and immediately wiped her tears. Going to the sink she washed her face hurryingly and wiped it real quick. While she cleaned her hands she stared down at the bump on her stomach.

That was the worst part of this all. Weiss wasn't in the right state of mind at all. Yet here she was, a mere 5 months of having a child and every day she was getting worse and worse with controlling her temper.

Surely I'm not staring to... No, there isn't any possible way. We're not the same person and I'm just as much of a victim as Winter and Whitley were of him. I shouldn't worry about that. But think about it, Weiss. He's your father. It wouldn't be impossible.

Weiss moved her eyes towards the mirror and stared at her reflection. After a few moments, she finally walked out of the bathroom to go find Winter.

She walked around for a few minutes before she reached the bench the three of them had been at. Weiss glanced at the bench and noticed Henry was still sitting there. Weiss stood for a moment silently, hoping Henry wouldn't notice she was there, but Henry looked up and waved shyly at Weiss. She couldn't just ignore the other elephant lurking in the background of the more major elephant; therefore, Weiss decided to sit back down beside Henry.

"So..." Henry tried starting a conversation, "I don't think either of us expected to see each other, let alone find out what we did."

"You and I can easily agree on that." Weiss said, not batting an eye at him, "But, I don't know what to do. Sure the mystery is finally solved, but what the hell are we supposed to tell the public? That this kid is going to be born a bastard? Of two people that aren't even that familiar with each other?"

"Weiss, I'd say we're lucky we even know each other." He added in, "Think about the odds of that, sure you've met a lot of people but you at least remembered my name and who I am."

She finally looked at Henry when he finished his point. Sure, he didn't like him as a person, but was he even the same person as he was 4 years ago? She thought about it for a moment.

"I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive myself for my actions, because I did actually remeber that I was the one who wanted to even... You know..." She admitted, "But I don't want to have my- I-I mean our child growing up without a father... But I don't... I don't want to be a thing with you. It's not you, I think it's just past interactions and past pains that happened that I really don't have an interest."

"So you're saying... That we should... Raise him without being in a relationship?" Henry questioned, Weiss turned away not answering. The idea wasn't bad but...

"Actually... I don't want this child to know. Plus there's... Someone I do have my eyes set on." She stated, "I just worry that he wouldn't be cool with it. That he won't accept the fact of my own mistakes. But Henry, I'll be honest with you. We should just be friends. That's it. I'll let you see them, but I'd like to agree right here that we should never, ever bring this to the public light."

Weiss turned to look at Henry as she put her hand out. Henry hesitated for a moment but ended up sighing in defeat and shook Weiss' hand.

"It's for the best, for both reputations and honestly, some safety." Henry pointed out. Weiss nodded and smiled a little bit. Weiss heard a clammer of footsteps from behind as she turned.

"Winter?" Weiss asked, seeing Winter approach them. Winter came up and took Weiss by the wrist.

"Weiss, we need to go," Winter stated, not showing any emotion. Weiss tilted her head but listened because she knew it had to be important, surely.

"Alright... Well... Goodbye, Henry. It was nice talking to you." Weiss said as Winter took Weiss away from the park and to Weiss' car.

"Weiss, we need to head back to Atlas Academy. Now." Winter said, opening the passenger door and quickly getting as Weiss got into the driver's seat.

"Winter, what's wrong?" Weiss said as she started the car and backed out onto the main road and headed back to the academy.

"Something's wrong with Penny," Winter said.

"Winter. That's not as much information, is this classified or something?" Weiss grumbled.

"Weiss, I'm serious, something is very, very wrong with Penny. She..." Winter began.

"Isn't Ruby with her? She came early this weekend to hang out with me so she could spend a few days doing things with Penny." She said.

"That's the problem," Winter aggressively said, "She lost her memory."


	4. Chapter 4

"What?" Weiss said soon after the words slipped out of Winter's mouth, "There's no way... She's a robot! She should have the best memory of all of us!"

"That's what I thought, and exactly why we're being called to the academy," Winter stated.

"We?" Weiss said Winter turned to look at Weiss as they pulled into the parking lot of the academy.

"Yes, you, me, and the rest of your team. I'm assuming Ironwood and Pietro are already with Penny, and probably Ruby as well to take some quick assumption," Winter said, "We need to get to the very top of the academy. Come on." Winter stepped out of the car and was followed by Weiss, once they got inside they took the elevator to the top floor and to say the least the last time Weiss had even been this high in Atlas Academy had been the day Ironwood finally called a truce with their group to get Salem out of Atlas, which did work in the end. Once they reached the top Winter and Weiss were greeted by Ironwood and Pietro already surrounding Penny, and Ruby pacing in the background, looking as if she'd been crying.

"Weiss! You're here, thank Gods!" Ruby said, rushing over to Weiss and Winter. Winter waved quickly before walking over to the other two across the room in the middle. Ruby seemed overwhelmed at the situation.

"Ruby! What happened?" Weiss asked, Ruby swaying nervously. She stayed silent for a while before finally speaking.

"I came here to meet up with Penny to go get food and I didn't see her where she said to meet me at, so I went off to find her and I ran around for twenty minutes and I found her running around the halls and when I greeted her she said she didn't know who I was and where she even is right now and I don't know what happened and I don't know if this had to do with me..." Ruby said, slowly starting to cry as she went on.

"Woah, Ruby slow down. So she just randomly lost her memory?" Weiss said, "Just like that?"

"Mhm..." Ruby mumbled while keeping her eyes fixated onto the ground. Weiss left Ruby for a second and went over to the 3 surrounding Penny. Penny had this look that was a precise mix of confusion and fear painted across her face. Weiss was surprised Ironwood had barely changed in appearance at all, in fact, it was the same uniform just fixed and more than likely new, but more of his hair was gray now.

"I don't feel very comfortable with this... Please get away!" Penny wailed as Pietro was trying to reassure her.

"Darling, it's us... How do you not recognize any of us? What happened to your memories?" Pietro said, "We're not hurting you, we just are worried about what happened to everything you know."

"Please, Penny. It's for the best of us, you'll be glad once you remember everything." Ironwood said while Winter stood lurking silently slightly farther away.

"I don't even know who you are! I've never seen any of you before in my life!" Penny yelped, shuddering away, putting her hands on her head and crouching down looking as if she was in pain.

"Penny..." Weiss said, Winter looked over at her and remembered, she never had even said sorry. This was now the top priority for the rest of the day, probably for a few if she was being honest to herself. She wasn't going to be able to tell her the simple words that she was sorry until this ordeal was dealt with.

The events of what was going on continued for the next few minutes, Penny ending up sitting on the floor crying and yelling for them to stop while the others continued to tell her she wasn't being harmed. After what seemed like forever though, Penny's sobbing slowed down. She looked up at Pietro and Ironwood for a moment and sighed. She stood up and simply turned her head to look at the rest of the people.

"I really don't know who you are but..." Penny sniffled as she wiped her tears away, "I don't know what's going on... I just woke up today and then you... I'm sorry you know what happened, silly me..." She sighed as she walked up to everyone greeting them with a name introduction and everything.

"Penny, you really don't know who we are? What you're even doing here?" Winter asked.

"No... I only know about myself as far as I can even remember..." Penny sighed as she found a place to sit down, "Can you just introduce yourselves at least..?"

"Well, I'll let you know who everyone is!" Ruby jumped up to the occasion to jog Penny's memory back, "I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose. Over there, the pregnant one with the ponytail is Weiss. The taller one with the bun is Winter. The one in the chair that I don't even understand myself is your creator but also your father, Dr. Pietro! The grey-haired man is General Ironwood."

"Oh, so that's why I seem to slightly recognize Dr. Pietro's voice..." Penny stated. Everyone bated an eye to her once more.

"Do you remember a bit about him?" Ruby asked.

"Just his voice, everything else, I have no idea..." Penny said.

Merely hours later, Penny was still clueless to what was going on but they'd tried to explain to her what happened, but Penny just wasn't remembering anything, so Weiss ended up going ahead and getting ready to leave to go home.

"Weiss, where are you going?" Ruby asked.

"Home," Weiss mumbled, by this point, it was almost 7 pm and Weiss wanted to do nothing but go home and eat something then sleep forever.

"Can I come with you? I actually kinda have to talk to you about something..." Ruby asked. Weiss grew confused but accepted her offer.

"Alright, you can come with me." Weiss stepped over to the elevator as Ruby followed. The elevator went down as Ruby stood awkwardly, keeping silent but looking at Weiss.

Once they reached the bottom they exited the building and entered Weiss' car. Ruby still stayed silent on the car ride back to the Schnee mansion, despite Weiss' best efforts to start a conversation. Once they arrived the two walked inside, Weiss immediately heading straight to her favorite room in the entire house currently, the pantry. Sure she was rich and had a lot of food so this didn't seem significant to her level of wants and needs, but her cravings had been satisfied by the said pantry, therefore making it the best room in the house. When the two of them stepped inside Ruby immediately saw the cookies and zoomed to them. Weiss giggled as she grabbed a box of crackers and cereal and grabbed a bowl from the cabinet in the middle of the room.

Weiss exited the room and went upstairs to her room, assuming Ruby would be up in a minute probably stuffed by cookies. A few minutes passed and Weiss got a call on her scroll. Picking it up she heard Neptune's voice.

"Weiss, where are you?" Neptune asked. Weiss felt a moment of confusion but realized that Neptune had said he was going to come over tonight to hang out with Weiss, and it'd just slipped Weiss' mind.

"In my room, Ruby's here too but she's in the pantry at the moment, probably stuffing her face with cookies," Weiss replied, hearing Neptune giggle on the other end made her smile.

"Alright! Well, I'll be up there in a minute." Neptune said hanging up. Weiss sat silently for a moment, sitting on her bed and falling back to look up to the ceiling in her room. She knew things were going to be probably bad for a while. Ruby was more than likely destroyed to know her best friend had just forgotten her entirely. Neptune at least wouldn't be as concerned about anything currently going on, as he had no idea what had been happening. Weiss didn't plan on telling him any of it either, considering she wasn't sure if she was allowed to mention any of the things she's been told or witnessed. Pass by another 2 minutes and Weiss finally heard a knock on her door. Standing up she went to open the door and Neptune was standing there, adjusting the collar to his outfit.

"You look fancy," Weiss snorted as Neptune giggled.

"Yeah, you look like you've had a..." Neptune tried to form words but just started as Weiss slightly confused, "Are you alright, Weiss?"

"Oh yeah, it's nothing," Weiss said, as Neptune entered the room and sat down over at the sitting area by the doors to Weiss' balcony.

"So, you want to talk about it?" Neptune asked. Weiss only shook her head, avoiding the subject entirely. She went over and sat down beside him.

"You know, I like this view of the kingdom," Weiss stated, her eyes fixated on the outside.

"Yeah... If I'm being honest I haven't really said this to you or anyone in a long time but... It's as pretty as you." Neptune added.

"Oh! Thanks..." Weiss said, smiling a little as her cheeks turned a light pink.

"Remeber back when everyone called you the Ice Queen?" Neptune asked.

"Oh yeah... I remember that, and if I'm being honest, it still happens every once in a blue moon." Weiss said. Her eyes went back to look at Neptune as she noticed he was looking at her. Weiss giggled a little, "You know, sometimes I'm glad that the world needed saving. Means I wouldn't have met my team, or any of my friends now, and you."

"O-Oh! Same here I presume, though I'd probably still have ended up meeting you because you'd still be in your position of power." Neptune said.

"No. I would have left, and that's that." Weiss stated, with a bit of coldness in her tone.

"Why? You had a great life here I thought." Neptune said. Weiss furrowed her eyebrows in resentment. If there was one thing she still was mad at for society about, was the fact no one truly knew why the man who happened to also be her father was such a horrible person. She couldn't blame Neptune though, majority of people were uninformed of the situation entirely. Weiss, Winter, Whitley, and even Willow had tried to expose the truth several times but because of each of their own personal traumas, they never had been able to tell anyone that they didn't actually know the truth.

"That's not true. At all." Weiss sighed, "I can't blame you for not knowing that though. I'd expect you would've picked up why I was called the Ice Queen though."

"No..." Neptune said, "You've always been more of a Snow Angel to me."

"Oh... Thank you... But I might as well inform you of the truth." Weiss looked out the window, down to the front of the mansion at the sculptures of her family's emblem, "The man named Jacques Schnee is far worse than society might realize... He wasn't good to anyone. People might think he chose favorites, like his family over everyone else, but that's not even remotely true, even for my little brother. When he first married my mother their marriage wasn't a good one at first, small things led to another, and eventually, my sister was born. Of course, this meant nothing in the eyes of my father, he just had what he needed, an heiress. And that's all she ever was to him, someone born solely to be trained properly and to be used like a puppet just to keep the SDC in the state of power it was and somehow still is in. When me and my brother were both born though, things progressively got worse. Winter was the first alongside my mother to truly understand what kind of my man father is. It started with arguments and some tears being shed because of him, but over the years it turned into emotional abuse... He told my mother she was never good enough to be the CEO of the Schnee Dust Company and that he was the perfect successor for her father. After my grandfather's retirement, he was the one to take over, instead of my mother. By then though, my mother had been broken beyond belief. Winter as well. By the time I was 10 even I started to truly understand everything, which knowing this now was not good at all for a 10-year-old to be able to understand that type of situation. My mother had broken entirely when my 10th birthday came around, my father admitted he married her for the family name and they've never said 'I love you' to each other since. Winter, on the other hand, was training to get into Atlas Academy. What she'd already endured was... Brutal... Father was more than just emotionally abusive but it got so bad, Winter was getting..."

Weiss felt tears flow into her eyes, remembering what she'd done to Winter that very day wasn't making anything better. Little did she know it but she was already starting to sob, and Neptune sat there confused on what to do, probably shocked by what he'd just heard.

"I-I'm sorry, I need a m-moment." Weiss cried, standing up to go stand in front of the mirror in her bathroom. Thinking about it, the worse her tears got. She knew her worries were getting worse. She was becoming her father. She just knew it. This was exactly what he did. The constant yelling. The hitting. This was what he was like. Weiss didn't want to be like that though, but by this point, it was starting to grow more and more out of her control. She stood there for several minutes before her tears slowed down, and she finally walked back out to Neptune still sitting down, looking as if he'd shed a few tears.

"Are you alright?" Neptune asked.

"I'm better now, thank you..." Weiss said, sitting back down in her chair, "This is just a really hard subject to talk about, but to sum, the rest up things got so bad, Winter left eventually, my mother isolated herself, I made my escape, and Whitley was stuck there until Jacques Schnee finally was arrested." The two of them sat in silence for a moment. Neptune finally apologized after a minute.

"I'm sorry... That I even thought that..." Neptune said, "But don't worry, you're better now, he's serving justice, perhaps not for the right reasons but he's being punished by the Gods."

"It's alright! I already told you that it wasn't your fault..." She said, "I do worry though sometimes... If my child ever had to go through that... Would I ever forgive myself?"

"What do you mean, Weiss?"

"Could I become like my father, or even worse... My mother?"

"You know you're better than that." Neptune said, leaning to Weiss he spoke more, "Weiss, you're going to be an amazing mother. You know that, and I already know that. And honestly, I'd like to mention something..."

"Oh... What is it?" Weiss questioned.

"Well... You know Beacon was awkward for both of us and our feelings were both kind of all over the place, but now I can tell where my feelings lie. I just want to say, Weiss that I think you're amazing, you're beautiful, and you're probably one of the most thoughtful people I know..." Neptune paused, "Weiss... I know it for sure now, but I actually think I'm legit in love with you..."

Weiss fell silent for a while. Her smile going from the opposite to very visible.

"Neptune... Honestly, I feel mostly the same way... Sure back then I thought you were genuinely a good suave guy, but you're so much more than that, you actually care for your friends. Do you know how many people I've fallen in love with just to find out they'd used me! But...I can be assured that I do love you and that you probably do love me." Weiss felt herself scoot her chair closer to Neptune's as the two stayed silent for a moment.

That changed though when Weiss felt Neptune move closer to her face. She was confused until she felt his lips meet hers. Despite the fact Weiss had kissed people before, she'd never had a real one. It felt weird, to be honest, but the kiss stayed connected as Weiss put her hands around Neptune and vice versa. The two were passionately kissing until they heard the door to the room click open.

Ruby came trotting in yelling.

"HEY WEISS! I FINALLY FEEL LIKE WE CAN TALK NOWWWwwwwww..." Ruby had looked excited at first but her facial expression dropped as she stared at the two, their lips still locked. Weiss immediately jumped backward, still blushing.

"Have you heard of knocking..?" Weiss said, feeling slightly embarrassed that Ruby had to walk in and witness that, but Weiss didn't expect what happened next.

"I guess that would be... A-A no..." Ruby said as Weiss saw her eyes water, which proceeded to Ruby using her semblance to run out of the room.

One thing was clear, Ruby was affected differently than someone who was just her friend would be affected.


	5. Chapter 5

"Ruby wait!" Weiss yelled, immediately standing up and running out of the room after Ruby. Rushing out the door she saw a trail of fading rose petals leading to the left, which would lead someone right down to the courtyard. Making a dash she raced after the petals as they quickly faded themselves. Once she got outside she saw a cluster of petals near a bush along with the sound of muffled crying.

She slowed down and caught her breath for a moment before approaching the bush.

"Go away..." Weiss heard Ruby's voice, shaking with despair.

"What? Ruby, you just ran out of my room crying. Are you okay?" Weiss said, moving around the bush, to see Ruby sitting behind it already surrounded by her red cloak. Weiss took a seat beside Ruby and sighed, "You aren't okay, are you? I'm sorry you walked in on that..."

"Weiss... I feel like even now it should be obvious," Ruby said, avoiding any sort of eye contact, "But I see now, I should've been the one to see all those years ago. You've never been into that kind of person."

"You aren't making any sense. What kind of type? What's wrong?" Weiss pushed to get a clear answer out of Ruby.

"Yet you're as blind as ever, my sister could see through me and hell we haven't been as close up to recent, yet she could see the obvious. You on the other hand..." Ruby slowly twisted her body away from Weiss more and more.

"What is it? What does Yang realize that I don't?" She asked.

"Do you want me to just say it, or you want one last guess?" Ruby said.

"I... I don't know... I'm sorry!" Weiss said, not sure what she was apologizing for.

"You idiot," Ruby lightly chuckled through her tears, "These are tears of a broken heart, of someone who has been trying to get the attention of someone for who knows how long, but when this person realizes that there is someone that's more of their type they still can't see those feelings through their outer shell and just go for what they think is the better option." Ruby seemed to slowly start shaking more and more as she spoke, "You might think Yang's anger issues come from her mom's side, but I'll tell you it sure isn't, because honestly the fact even n, that look on your face tells me you can't see it, despite the clear explanation."

"I don't understand! A lot has happened, Ruby! I can't take one more thing!" Weiss pointed out.

"Oh, gods forbid! 'My family has been doing so much better lately now with my abusive father gone, I've been changing the world for the better, I now have the man of my dreams!' Yeah Weiss, sounds really bad. I'm over here having to watch two of my best friends almost break up because of trust issues, my mom's been dead and we still have no idea what happened to her even after we supposedly avenged her murder, my little sister had to be born into whatever mess this is of life, my best friend just lost all memory of what we've done together, and the love of my life is sitting right in front of me, not realizing what the hell is going on!"

"Wait..." Weiss felt the realization of the situation set down upon her, "No one else is around here... Am I..."

"The love of my life? It should be obvious by now..." Ruby mumbled, still keeping her back turned to Weiss.

"I'm sorry Ruby... I never realized..." Weiss' guilt slowly began to show, "I'm not into girls... I should've realized you didn't even know that, and even Yang suggested it and I just denied it saying you hated being in crowds at your sister's wedding."

"I shouldn't have snapped like that, I'm sorry," Ruby said, flipping to look at Weiss, but still keeping eye contact away.

"Ruby no, I should apologize. I never considered how you might've felt and denied it even be possible, I should've known better than that and told you a long time ago the truth." Weiss tilted her head but turned it back when she felt Ruby grasp her.

"Oh, Weiss!" Ruby cried, hugging Weiss tightly, "Please tell me we're still friends!"

"We are, and just know, it's not romantic, but I do love you as if you were a sister," Weiss said, "Just know that I'm here for you, maybe not in the way you hoped but I promise I won't deny anything about you again without asking you first." The two of them continued hugging for a moment before the door to the courtyard clicked open.

"Well, this isn't what I expected to see..." Came the voice of Whitley.

"Whitley, what are you doing here?" Weiss said, standing up and brushing the dirt off her skirt.

"Checking on my sister and her friend, of course, Neptune sent me to see where y'all had gone and I heard you two behind the bush, great hiding spot, the same place I used to hide when I was little." He said, nostalgia painted on his face.

"We're fine, it just was a misunderstanding, Whitley. What are you doing home this early anyway?" Weiss asked.

"You see, that meeting with Atlas academy about funding was canceled. I have no idea why but I just came home and have been practicing piano when Neptune came running down the hall looking for you two, saying he thinks he didn't realize something and that he felt bad," he said, sitting down on a bench, "But I wanted to talk to you anyways so I looked for you as a request of his to be fulfilled."

"Oh, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?" Weiss asked, sitting down beside her brother.

"Well, it's only to be discussed with you at the moment as I don't want to spread fear." Whitley said, gesturing towards Ruby, "So I'd ask if you could please leave us two to talk?"

Ruby stood confused for a second but realized he meant for her to leave.

"Oh! I'll go... I'll... Meet you... At a later time?" Ruby said, walking back to the door and inside.

Weiss glared out into the courtyard, which was beginning to fill itself with green, thanks to the help of gardeners.

"I wanted to talk to you about what happened today." Whitley started without any warning to Weiss whatsoever.

"What do you mean?" Weiss said, "How do you know what happened?"

"Winter wanted me to talk to you since you'd left from whatever the heck Winter was rambling out in our text." He said, pulling out his scroll quickly, sighing, then putting it back in his pocket.

"Oh let me guess, she's mad at me." Weiss said, "I already know that I need to apologize for my actio-"

"No, Weiss. You've got it all wrong, Winter isn't mad at you at all... She's worried about you," Whitley said, "She swore that the girl who hit her was not Weiss, she is worried about you. She can tell something is up, and with how you've been acting lately I can tell as well something is wrong."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Whitley. I'm fine. I'm totally fine."

"Then why did you hit her?"

"I... I don't know..."

"Something is obviously wrong, Weiss. We want to help you if you'll let us. Is it mood swings? Are you not getting enough support? Are you worried? Is it about father?"

"Whitley stop."

"It is about him, isn't it." Whitley sighed, "I know I never really had it as bad as you and especially not as bad as Winter, but I know for a fact he can't hurt you anymore. He's still serving prison time for another 23 years, by the time he's out he'll be so old that he can't hurt any of us anymore!"

"Whitley you don't understand." Weiss said, "You wouldn't... You're not in the same position as me, at least now."

"What do you mean?" Whitley said.

"You aren't the one who's slowly losing their mind as the CEO of this damned company, worried about snapping at your loved ones when you don't mean to! Worried you might even hurt them" Weiss grumbled, "You don't have to worry about you potentially doing something bad to your own child on accident that might make them hate you forever when it was only an accident because you're stressed about turning into the one that hurt you first! And sure, you might experience this in the future, but right now you sure as hell have no idea what is even going on with me! None of you will!" Whitley was taken aback by the words Weiss was spilling out to him. Weiss slowly felt her face run wet again as she started crying.

"Weiss... You're nothing like him, he never admitted he was wrong, even at trial he didn't admit it." Whitley said, trying to smile.

"But I can't get the feeling away that he knows what's wrong and that he's happy it's happening this way! I can't get the feeling away that I'm being watched!"

"Weiss, no one is ever not being watched, you're paranoid and that's understandable," Whitley said, soothing Weiss by hugging her.

"I know you're right, but I still can't shake away the feeling," Weiss sighed, wiping her eyes.

"I have an idea, but you might not like it," Whitley said.

"What?" Weiss asked.

"You're afraid you'll become father, right? You're afraid you might make a mistake like his on accident, but would it make you feel better to know if he didn't do it on purpose? To know he wasn't as bad as we think? Or would it make you happier to know he doesn't regret anything and that you are better than him?"

"Whitley you aren't making sense..."

"You could ask him," Whitley suggested.

"What the hell did you just suggest?!"

"To ask father yourself, you said you don't want to do it on accident, if you ask him if it was an accident and he admits it wasn't, it'd make you know you're better than him!" Whitley said.

"You seriously don't understand why we don't ever go visit him, do you?" Weiss said, giving a death stare.

"He wouldn't be able to hurt you. Just ask him then leave." Whitley said, "I'll even come with you if you want, I want to inform him of a few new things to rub it in his face that I'm better then he thought I'd turn out in the end."

"Well, when you put it like that..." Weiss said, thinking for a moment. Sure the idea was crazy, but if Whitley's theory was correct Weiss knew it'd probably make her feel a whole lot better, "Alright."

"Alright?"

"When are we going to go?" Weiss asked.


	6. Chapter 6

Weiss picked up her purse from off the vanity in her closet. It was about 7:20 in the morning and she was about to be meeting Whitley so they could head off to 'interrogate' their father. Weiss knew what they were doing probably wasn't a good idea but by this point, Weiss thought it'd be something to do and get over with.

Taking a bit of hair spray she sprayed her hair and waited for it to dry. The two of them had a simple plan because the day already was going to be busy. In fact, the day was pretty important to Weiss, and not just because of what she and Whitley were doing, but Weiss' gender reveal party for the little one was later that afternoon, and Weiss had to still help set it up which was going to take a few hours.

Once the hair spray dried Weiss went ahead and made her way out of her bedroom and down the stairs to the front entrance of the manor. Weiss waited there for a little while until she glanced up to Whitley rushing down the stairs.

"Sorry! My alarm did not want to work this morning." Whitley said as he opened the front door, "Are you sure you want to not just have breakfast here before going?"

"I'm sure, I wanted Mother to eat with us anyways if she knew what we were doing she'd go nuts and beg us to not." Weiss said, "While that would probably be better to not go, I really want to try your idea. Plus, I've never seen you insult father to his face."

"Oh, so that's what this is about?" Whitley said as the two of them stepped outside and got into the limo in front of the manor.

"No! You know I wouldn't do that to you, I'm going to do what I said I'd do, I promise," Weiss said, "But we aren't telling mother about this, sure you and I still live here but that's because we have the same job and you're only 19."

"Give it a few years and I'll be out of this place, I'd like to be able to see the world on my own," Whitley said as the limo drove.

"Well that's nice because by then I might have someone to take your place if needed," Weiss said, "Plus, I know you hate little kids."

"Don't even go there."

"You'll love your niece or nephew though!"

"I swear Weiss I will shove you out of this car right now!"

"And kill me and an innocent unborn child? That's harsh..."

"Weiss!"

"Fine fine..." Weiss let out a laugh, "But honestly by this point, I kinda just want this kid out, and I'm only halfway through this mess."

"You look bigger than you're supposed to be at this time, I'll tell you that," Whitley noted.

"And that's exactly how you figured it out," Weiss said, "At the dinner party," the siblings said in sync, to which they both let out an embarrassed chuckle.

"It's probably because you're shorter." Whitley pointed out.

"Excuse me?" Weiss said, "I'm not that short."

"Without your heels, you're a mere 5 feet tall, am I wrong?"

"Whitley!"

"And this is exactly how you made me feel."

"Whitley I swear!" Weiss sharply inhaled before she felt her scroll go off. Pulling it out she realized it was Willow calling, "Well Gods Damned."

"Just answer it, tell her we're going to get breakfast."

"Fine! Give me a second!" Weiss said, answering the scroll, "Hello mother."

"Weiss! Where are you and Whitley, weren't we going to eat breakfast together?" Willow said.

"Oh, we'll be back later! We're going to the coffee shop to discuss company stuff since his meeting was canceled last night!" Weiss covered up, and she noticed Whitley mouth 'Damn, you're good.'

"Hurry back once you're done, please. You have to get ready for your big party, I don't care if it's only like 15 people, that's still pretty big for me."

"Mom, it's fine. We'll be back soon, promise. I've got to go, goodbye I love you!" Weiss said, quickly hanging up before she got a response.

"Where did you learn to lie that well?" Whitley asked as soon as Weiss put her scroll away.

"Father."

"Oh..." Whitley sighed, "Oh wait a second... We're here!"

"Fantastic..." Weiss said, looking out the window, the weight of her decision finally setting in, "A-Are you sure about this?" Weiss gulped.

"You're not backing out now, are you?" Whitley said, as the door to the limo opened.

"No, just want you to think about what we're doing for a second. What if he yells at you? Or me?" Weiss said.

"The guards wouldn't let him," Whitley said as the two headed inside. Whitley did most of the talking, getting them their visitor badges. The two of them entered a separate room separated into two halves, one for visitors and one for inmates. Weiss gulped at the divider, separated by a clear wall and cubbies with phones to call to the other side. Whitley found the one they were assigned and took the first seat, Weiss following ahead staying on her feet. She felt the nervousness creep up her back.

Whitley turned to Weiss and shrugged before the two of them turned back to look inside seeing a figure approach the cubby along with a guard.

"Father." Whitley was the first to speak. The man in front of the seperater now in the chair was none other than Jacques Schnee himself. He looked a lot messier than he normally would have liked. His white hair was longer and mustache had turned into a white beard.

"What do you two want? And make it quick, I have better things to do." Jacques said. Weiss let Whitley do his talking portion first, telling Jacques about how he'd been helping the company get sponsor after sponsor and that the SDC was thriving with his lead in his department.

"Enough about me, we mostly came here because Weiss had a very important question for you," Whitley said, standing up to let Weiss sit down. Weiss took a seat and took a deep breath. Whitley put a hand on her shoulder, reassuring her.

"Hurry up, we don't have all day." The man on the other side said, which made Weiss flinch.

"I know we don't have all day, I'm not dumb." Weiss grumbled, "I wanted to ask, and don't you dare go on a rant when I ask this. But..." Weiss looked to Whitley and back to their father, "Do you regret anything you did?"

"What kind of question is that?" Jacques said, "You really... You really think I regret anything!" He let out a long laugh, "Of course I don't. If that's all you have to ask, then get out of my sight."

"Fine, we'll be gone then," Weiss said, ready to hang up the phone, but Jacques mumbled one more thing into the phone.

"Slut." Was all he said, before hanging up first.

The line went dead and Weiss felt her face grow red before putting the phone up. She didn't care to say goodbye and practically dragged Whitley out with her. When the two of them entered the limo again Weiss sat in silence. About 2 minutes passed before Whitley said anything.

"What happened?" Whitley asked, "What did he say to you?"

"I don't want to talk about it..."

"Why?"

"He wasn't wrong..."

"Weiss, I'm sorry..." Whitley said, placing a hand of Weiss' shoulder, "But really, what did he say?"

"I don't want to talk about it, Whitley, what don't you get about that?"

"Fine fine, but do you feel better?" He asked.

"Honestly..." Weiss thought for a moment, her father had laughed as if everything he'd done to them had been nothing, but Weiss would never do the same. She considered it for a moment, to which she turned to Whitley and smiled, "I think I do feel better."

"Good, then we can go home and just act like nothing happened." Whitley said, "But if you do want to talk about it, my door is always open..."

"Thanks. But you do realize we're home, right?" Weiss said, gesturing to the window.

"Shiiiii-OOT!" Whitley said, flinging the door open and stepping out. Weiss chuckled as she followed behind him inside. Their mother was waiting at the front door for them.

"There you two are! Breakfast is going to get cold if we don't eat it now!" Willow said, pulling Whitley and Weiss by the arm to the dining room, where breakfast had already been served.

"Mom! We weren't even gone for more than 45 minutes! You could have waited for breakfast to be made." Whitley said.

"Whitley, let's just eat it before it gets cold, as mother said." Weiss sighed, taking a seat and looking at the scrambled eggs and toast on her plate. Weiss took the syrup from the middle of the table and poured some on her toast, it wasn't really a craving, she just always liked the taste of syrup on toast over butter. She took a bite and smiled at the sweet flavor of the syrup toast. She finished her toast and moved on to eating her scrambled eggs, which were saltless and pepperless but another weird preference of hers was butter on her scrambled eggs after it was made. She swiftly engulfed the eggs and drank the orange juice also at her place at the table.

Once she was done she took a look at the time, to which her scroll showed it was 8:12 in the morning. She remembered that the rest of her team was already going to be in Atlas within the next few hours and that Ruby was going to bring them to the manor herself. Weiss knew it'd be a while so she decided she'd try working on other things for the party.

Starting with the decorations of course.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

A few hours later, Weiss was outside once more in a different courtyard, now sitting alone reflecting on that morning.

'He wasn't wrong, I am a slut... While I'm drunk. He doesn't even know the full story. Why am I getting so worked up over this when I know that?'

Weiss shook the feeling away as she felt a feeling from her stomach she hadn't ever felt before. She pushed the thoughts away for a moment to place a hand in the same place, to which another feeling similar to the last followed. It took her a second to realize what it was she'd just felt. That was the kick of her child. She smiled for a moment, letting the world around her drown out. The moment stopped when the gates to the courtyard open and made Weiss jump up from the chair she'd been in.

"Weiss?" Came Blake's voice, "Did we scare you?"

"Oh! Guys! It's so great to see you all!" Weiss said, running up to the three who had changed her life for the better, Ruby, Yang, and Blake.

"Weiss, you saw me yesterda-"

"I know, shut up!" Weiss said, keeping the hug for a while longer before letting go, "How are you two?"

"Well, we've been good. We're excited about this afternoon, Weiss." Yang said.

"Oh crap! You three are my new helpers, come along."

"Dear gods it's the Vytal Dance all over again..." Ruby grumbled, to which Weiss glared back at her annoyingly.

"Oh! That reminds me! I need to send out another invite. Just give me a minute I'll meet you in the living room." Weiss said, pulling her scroll out.

"Weiss... Where is your living room..?" Yang asked.

"Agh! Just give me a second I need to just send one last-minute invite out!" Weiss quickly found Henry's contact in her scroll, she knew it'd only be right since it was technically also his child. She could pass it off as they'd met at a party and were friends now as they shared a similar interest in not really liking parties attending them for their own reasons.

Once she sent the invite, she noticed Ruby standing over her shoulder, "Who's that?" She asked.

"A friend," Weiss said, putting her scroll in her skirt pocket.

"Weird, why'd you say, 'It's only right that I invite you'."

"Ruby that's not your business, I can explain it later."

"Alright, fine." Ruby sighed, "So are we there yet?"

"Just a little more of a walk, Ruby. You know where we're going anyways considering you've been here a lot yourself." Weiss noted.

"You're right..." Ruby sighed when they entered the living room.

"Weiss, there you are!" Willow said rushing up to Weiss, "I to talk to you."

"Oh okay, I'll be right back..." Weiss said, escaping momentarily to find the banners and balloons along with a pump, "Can you guys put these up?"

"Sure," Yang said, taking the banners, while Blake took the deflated balloons and pump.

"Thank you! I'll be back in a minute, promise." Weiss said, now walking over to Whitley, who was placing a table cloth on a table.

"Well, sister, I've never placed a table cloth on a table before but it's satisfying if you asked me!" Whitley said, "Also, mother wants to-"

"I know, did you tell her about this morning?" Weiss asked.

"Not really." Whitley said, "I don't know what she wants to ask you now."

"Alright then, I guess I'll be back," Weiss said, walking back over to her mother. Willow took her hand and pulled her out of the room to another place in the hallway. She was looking down for a few seconds staying silent before she finally spoke.

"Weiss, why did you and Whitley go visit your father this morning?" Willow asked. Weiss took a step back.

"How did you know?" Weiss said Willow let out a sigh.

"You forgot about the camera's did you." Willow said, "I just want to know two things."

"Which is..?" Weiss said, mentally face palming at her stupidity.

"What happened while you were there and... Is he okay?" Willow said. The second question took Weiss by surprise. Did Willow still care about him? Maybe. Weiss knew from what Blake had told her sometimes in abusive relationships like that you get so attached to the person and still care about them.

"I think he's okay, and we just went there to talk with him. Whitley boasted about all his recent achievements and I..." Weiss trailed off for a moment, recollecting the earlier events, "I asked if he had any regrets about what he'd done involving us. He denied it."

"Is that all?" Willow said, to which Weiss nodded. She looked to Weiss and then away again, "You're not telling me something else aren't you."

"There's nothing else," Weiss said, keeping a fake smile on her face. Willow looked at Weiss and frowned.

"I know that smile is fake Weiss, what did he say to you?" Willow said, "I must remind you I'm an expert at that fake smile as well, you have an identical one to mine."

"Fine. He did say something to me but I really don't want to talk about it, at least not here." Weiss said, looking back to the entrance to the living room.

"Can you at least give me an idea?" Willow said, the concern clearly expressed in her blue eyes. Weiss sighed and placed a hand on her stomach. Willow gasped lightly, seeming to understand why Weiss didn't want to disclose what Jacques had said to her. She looked to her daughter with sympathy in her eyes and hugged her.

"It's not that big of a deal, mom," Weiss said, hugging her mother back.

"Shush, I want you to know that whatever he said was not true at all," Willow said.

"But it was..." Weiss sighed, "You don't even know what he said."

"Then what did h-"

"He called me a slut, mom." Weiss said, holding back a tear and balling her fist, "And damn he wasn't wrong.

"Just because of one simple mistake does not make you that, Weiss." Willow said, letting go of the hug the mother and daughter were in, "You can take my word or his word, but that's your decision."

"I don't know... I'd take your word," Weiss said, "It's just..." Weiss lost trace of her thoughts again and stared off, a tear falling down her cheek.

"Weiss..." Her mother wiped the tear from her cheek, "It's okay."

"I'm sorry," Weiss apologized, "For dumping this on you..."

"It's alright, I'm glad you're able to open up to me now," Willow said, "It shows how far you've come, and how far I've come as being an actual mom to you and you." Weiss made eye contact with Willow and smiled softly.

"Thank you," Weiss said, as she walked back to the living room with Willow. Weiss walked over to Whitley who was still putting on table cloths.

"So, what'd she want?" Whitley asked, not turning to look at his sister.

"She knows what we did this morning," Weiss said.

"Damnit, how does she always know!" Whitley grumbled.

"The cameras perhaps?" Weiss noted.

"I hate those things, they have no point anymore but mother still refuses to remove them." Whitley said, turning to look at Weiss, who had an uneasy expression, "Wait, you think they're okay, don't you?"

"I didn't say that!" Weiss said, "I don't think where she puts them is great... Like our... Uh... Bedrooms... But she has a valid reason which I do agree with."

"So what did she want to know?"

"Why we went there."

"Obviously isn't all, what did she want to know, Weiss?" Whitley pressured. Weiss sighed, looking to their mother who was happily helping Yang put up some banners.

"She wanted to know if he was okay."

"WHAT?!" Whitley quietly yelled, "Is she crazy!"

"No. I can see why she was curious." Weiss said, "You forget what I've told you about Blake."

"Oh. I see." He said, still seemingly a bit confused.

"Just forget about it," Weiss said, as the two of them continued to place table cloths on the tables.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

It was already a little after 1 by the time the party started. Weiss had resided at one of the tables, already surrounded by familiar faces. She wasn't used to being the center of attention at parties like this, but she knew it was her idea in the first place. Currently, she was having a conversation with Ruby about what babies were even like.

"The first couple of weeks are the worst from what Mom has told me." Ruby said, "But after that, it dies down, but don't expect to have a normal sleep schedule for months. I'm just Summer's older sister and yet I barely got enough sleep, and that was nothing compared to what my mom and dad went through together!" Weiss nodded slowly, gulping a tad of her water.

"So I should expect to go back to how I used to be before I knew about any of this?" Weiss asked, "Because if so then oh Gods have mercy on my sanity..."

"Nah, you'll just be woken up a lot, but you'll be able to fall back asleep." Ruby said, "Plus, I'm always available if you need help right after he or she is born! Let's keep in mind by then... Wait, Weiss, when are you due?"

"Er... Later August, early September. The doctors never really exacted a date, but the range is the 28th of August to the 4th of September." Weiss said the day that loomed ever so far away but seemed close. She couldn't shake away that feeling that it was closer than she thought, but it was just 4 or so more months, which was a very long time from the present.

"So I'll be able to help the first month." Ruby said, "If you need it of course!"

"I probably will if I'm being honest," Weiss said, chuckling.

"What do you think the baby's gonna be, a boy or girl?" Ruby asked.

"Oh, I don't know, I'm okay with either," Weiss replied.

"Well, I think it's going to be a boy! How cool would that be, plus his Auntie Ruby would help him become one of the best huntsmen in the world!" Ruby said, making finger guns.

"Ruby, what if my child doesn't want to be a huntsman? Then he or she'll be a great CEO." Weiss said.

"You're really making your firstborn your heir?" Ruby said.

"Well... Yeah." Weiss admitted, "What's wrong with that?"

"Just seems a bit weird, why wasn't Winter the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company anyways?"

"I thought you already knew." Weiss sighed, "I'm not telling you again, Ruby. She. Was. The. Heiress."

"OH! I remember now! My bad..." Ruby said apologetically. Weiss chuckled a little at her forgetfulness.

"I'm going to greet the others, you save my seat please," Weiss said, as she stood up and began to walk around. She first found Blake, Yang, Nora, and Ren all crowded around the TV in the living room, watching an intense match of the Vytal Festival tournament.

"Damnit! You'd think that kid would be able to pound at least one member of the other team!" Yang shouted.

"Are you guys having fun?" Weiss asked, the group of four flinging around in shock.

"Weiss! Hello! It's good to see you!" Nora said, jumping up and running over to hug Weiss. Ren was in the background lightly laughing and mouthing the word 'Sorry' to Weiss.

"It's good to see you too. How's it going with you and Ren?" Weiss asked.

"Good! We've made it all the way to Vacuo now! We're staying there for a few months and then we're going straight to Mistral again." Nora exclaimed, "Enough about us, how are you?"

"Tired." Weiss sighed.

"I can tell when are you due anyways?" Nora asked.

"Late Augusts, early September," Weiss said, "I know exactly what you're gonna say so don't you dare say it."

"I was just going to say you don't really look to be only 5 months," Nora said, Weiss grumbled.

"I'm fully aware, as my brother reminded me this morning," Weiss said, looking over to her brother who was standing with Jaune, Neptune, and...

"Henry," Weiss said, Nora's face turned and she shrugged confusedly.

"You mean the guy over there? He just showed up, you know him?" Nora asked.

"Yeah, it was great to catch up really quick I'll be right back uh... Enjoy the TV!" Weiss said, scooching away to go over to the 4 guys.

"Weiss! There you are!" Whitley said, "I didn't know you knew Henry."

"Why is that..?" Weiss said confusingly.

"He used to give me piano lessons," Whitley said, glaring to Henry who stood there awkwardly.

"I'm glad you were able to make it." Weiss said, "In a while, I want to talk to you again if that's alright."

"Of course, it's good to see you too," Henry said, not making eye contact.

"Aside from that, hello Jaune! It's been a while, I haven't seen you since Blake and Yang's wedding." Weiss said.

"Mhm, Argus is a pretty cool place to live, you should visit sometime!" Jaune suggested.

"I'll plan on it, eventually though." Weiss said, "And hello again, Neptune."

"Hey, Weiss! Are you feeling better after yesterday?" Neptune asked.

"What happened yeste-"

"I'm feeling better!" Weiss replied cutting off Jaune's question, but Weiss whispered into Neptune's ear, "I'm kind of surprised you get along with Henry... Knowing about you know what."

"Why wouldn't I? It's neither of your faults." He said. Weiss raised an eyebrow but shrugged it off. Walking back over to a table she sat down where Winter and Willow were sitting.

"You seem surprisingly okay, Weiss," Winter said as soon as she sat down.

"Why wouldn't I be okay?" Weiss said, "It's not like anything bad has happened." Winter raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that." Winter said, "Just know, we're here for you."

"I know." Weiss giggled, to which Willow sighed, giving her a knowing glance.

"I see you invited Henry, which seems kind of surprising."

"It's really not that shoc-"

"Who's Henry?"

"Mom, I don't want to really talk about it at the moment. Winter can tell you if she wants though."

"Weiss, it's not my information."

"Obviously it was when you're the one that walked in on us having drunk sex!" Weiss yelled a little too loudly. The room wasn't filled with that many people so it wasn't much of a crowd, but it did fall silent, "That was a joke."

"Oh," Willow said. Hesitating for a moment before she burst into laughter, "I could tell, who has drun-" She paused for a moment as Weiss saw her mother's eyes fill with realization.

"Well shit," Weiss said.

"Who are you even talking about?" Yang yelled from across the room, to which the people who were involved or already knew just kept to themselves, Henry in the back nervously humming.

"No one." Weiss said, "Let's just... Let's just move on from this! We can talk about this another time guys. It's not important."

"Alright." Winter said, "Do you need me to get the balloon?"

"I thought it was a confetti popper?" Weiss asked.

"It was a balloon I thought." Winter countered, "Nevermind it's not a big deal, I'll just go get it." Winter stood up and walked out of the room for a few minutes. The room's chatter grew again and Willow leaned towards Weiss.

"You haven't told her sorry, have you?" Willow said.

"I don't know how!" Weiss defended, "I just want it to be a good one, so she knows it's sincere."

"Fine, fine..." Willow said as Winter entered the room with a black balloon. Weiss stood up, to which someone already muted the TV.

"So as you know, we're here because we're going to find out the gender of this little one." Weiss said, placing a hand on her stomach, her other hand taking a pair of scissors that were already on the table, "So I suppose it's time we actually figured it out! Before that though, what is everyone's votes?"

The group quickly took sides on the coordinated sides of the room which were labeled, girl or boy. Weiss stood in the center, Winter looming behind her as she was the one holding the balloon for Weiss.

"Alright then," Weiss said, "10."

"9."

"8."

"7."

"6."

"5."

"4."

"3."

"2."

"1!"

Weiss took the scissors and violently shoved them into the balloon. After a few shoves, the balloon exploded, with pink confetti coming out of it.

"It's a girl!" Willow, rushing up to Weiss, "I knew it, by this point it's genetics that every firstborn Schnee is a girl!"

"That's funny, I'm guessing that you'll have something to do now, mother?"

"What is that?"

"Oh well, I might want some help planning out a room..." Weiss said, hugging her mom.

"I'd be honored," Willow said, as they hugged.


	7. Chapter 7

Weiss had already been up for several hours when a knock came onto her bedroom door. Sitting up she glanced at the door, which hadn't yet opened. Weiss grumbled standing up and walking to the door. She opened it up to see her mother and brother behind the door.

"You're going to make us late, Weiss!" Whitley grumbled, "Can you go ahead and get ready so we can go? Both of us have to be there early!"

"I'm sorry, I just feel tired." Weiss sighed, "I'll be down in half an hour."

"Fine. But no later or we're going to be late." Whitley grumbled.

"If you need help, I can help you, darling," Willow offered. Weiss looked at her mother and nodded. Opening the door to let her in. Whitley nodded and walked off, leaving Willow and Weiss alone in Weiss' room, "You look pale, are you sick?"

"No. Just achey is all," Weiss grumbled, "I couldn't sleep consistently last night."

"Is Wilma okay?" Willow asked.

"I'm sure she's fine, mom. Just two more months. Two. More. Months." Weiss said, within a few weeks of finding out she was having a girl, she'd already chosen the name, Wilma. Weiss walked to her closet to grab her dress. Placing it on the door of her closet she sighed, "Mom, can you get me some water while I change real quick?"

"Of course," Willow said, exciting the room to leave Weiss by herself again. Weiss slid her gown off and put a bra on. Before she slid on her dress she looked at herself in the mirror. She was 7 months now, 28 weeks to be exact. Weiss had been tired of whatever hell was happening to her body, but she put up with it. It wasn't all that bad, aside from the aches and how often she needed to use the restroom.

"Speaking of which..." Weiss quickly slid on the dress, it was blue and reached her knees, the dress was a set that included a comfy white cardigan, which she went ahead and put on as well. Weiss took a quick trip to the bathroom and by the time she was out, her mother was standing there with a water bottle.

"Here," Willow said, handing Weiss the water bottle, "Do you want me to do your hair?"

"I can do that myself," Weiss said, going to take her hairbrush but pausing for a second when a sharp ache filled her lower back, to which she flinched.

"Are you alright?" Willow asked. Weiss waited a moment before turning around and nodding. Sitting down she brushed her hair and put it into her normal ponytail in the back. When she was done with that she began to put on her makeup. Willow pulled up a seat towards Weiss' vanity, "It's lovely to see your sister getting a high placement in Atlas just like you. Though she already was, now she's going to not only be the headmistress of the largest school in Atlas, but she'll be the general of the Atlesian Army. I don't think I'd ever been able to even take one of those jobs."

"Yeah, it's pretty impressive," Weiss said as she put on mascara, "Me and Whitley both have to sit on stage the whole time, you know so we can make official allegiances in front of everyone else. It's going to be pretty boring..."

"But there's a dinner afterward," Willow noted, "You'll get a nice meal."

"Mhm..." Weiss mumbled as she finished her makeup, standing up she looked to herself in the mirror, her left hand going under her stomach, "You ready to go?"

"I've been ready, we were waiting on you."

"Sorry..." Weiss said as she headed for the door, opening it and allowing Willow to exit the room first. Weiss soon followed behind closing the door. The two headed for the front entrance where Whitley was already waiting outside in his car.

"Well, let's go!" He yelled from the window. Weiss chuckled a little as she took a seat in the back of the car, Willow taking shotgun, "I'd expect you to want shotgun, Weiss."

"Nah, I don't feel like sitting up there this morning," Weiss said.

"Okay then..." Whitley said. The car took off after a few moments and the trio was headed off.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

It'd been a few hours and Weiss had grown tired of just sitting in a chair while all this important stuff was going on. At least she didn't have to move when her body had sudden aches. She sighed as she watched Winter standing over near the podium, the General had already been giving this long speech about his time as general and headmaster, saying how proud he was of Winter. It'd been maybe an hour since the ceremony even started and Weiss wanted nothing but to go home and lay in bed forever.

"And now, I want to let Winter Schnee herself speak," Ironwood said, gesturing at Winter to come to the podium and speak. She walked over and stood, tapping the mic for a quick soundcheck. After a second or two she took a secret deep breath and her voice rang through the auditorium. She went on a long speech on how grateful she was for the opportunities Ironwood granted her, despite the troubles along the way. The speech went on for about 15 minutes before Winter let Ironwood speak once more to go on with the ceremony. It ended up being the next 10 minutes of Weiss hearing sponsors of Atlas academy go up and shake hands with Winter one by one. Weiss already knew she and Whitley were last, Weiss being the CEO and Whitley being the representative for Atlas Academy specifically.

"To end off our sponsors we want to keep officiated, we have the Schnee Dust Company. If Weiss Schnee could come up here." Ironwood said, "And following behind her is Whitley Schnee, who keeps business well between Atlas Academy and the SDC."

The two siblings stood up together, Weiss putting her cardigan back on. The two of them both walked up to Winter and shook her hand.

"I'm proud of you, Winter," Weiss said before she and Whitley sat back down. Winter came up to the microphone again and made an oath and before Weiss knew it the ceremony was over. Her mind had barely paid attention as she'd felt extremely hot from just sitting in her chair. Soon enough Weiss along with a few other people like Whitley and her mother and most importantly, Winter, were at a table eating their food. The only problem was that Weiss didn't feel hungry. The ache's she'd felt earlier had completely ruined her appetite.

"Weiss, aren't you hungry?" Willow asked, "You seemed thrilled at the sound of food earlier before we left."

"Not anymore... I don't know, I've just felt off all day." Weiss said as she took a small bite of her salad. Everything else seemed to just not drown away her aches anymore. After a second Weiss gulped, "Excuse me for a moment, I need to use the restroom." Weiss stood up and scurried off without her cardigan to a restroom. Once she was inside she did her business and washed her hands. Looking into the mirror she saw she was sweating.

"Gods... Should I be worried?" Weiss mumbled as she stared at herself in the mirror. She placed her hand on her stomach and felt an aggressive kick from her daughter, "You're active today? It'd be nice if you wouldn't give me all these aches... You can just wait and do that till after you're born." Weiss sighed, drying her hands off and turning around to catch a glimpse of the back of her dress. Part of it looked like it was soaking wet, "How did I not notice that?" Weiss grumbled, pulling out her scroll. She felt embarrassed it took her that long to notice. She called her mother, who picked up the scroll in the first few rings.

"You need something, like your cardigan..." Willow said.

"Why didn't you tell me that there was a wet spot just on the back of my dress!" Weiss yelled.

"I thought you knew?" Willow said, "You would've known if it was..."

"It... Wait why didn't I notice..?" Weiss said.

"I'm coming right there, I'll see if perhaps it's something else." When Willow said those words, Weiss heard a sudden gush of liquid hit the floor. She looked around the floor to realize that it was her. Suddenly she felt the pieces float together.

"Please hurry," Weiss said, as she held back her tears. This wasn't good. Not now. Now was not the time.

She'd been in labor for hours and she hadn't realized it till now, and Weiss couldn't tell if it was too late or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh no i broke a water balloon


	8. Chapter 8

Weiss felt a flood of tears being held back by the pure shock she felt.

'No... Not now no... It's too early!'

She felt another ache, which Weiss figured out wasn't an ache but a contraction and took a seat against the wall. After about a minute Willow rushed into the bathroom to see Weiss on the ground in a bit more obvious pain.

"What happened?!" Willow asked, grabbing paper towels to help clean up the mess on the floor.

"We need to go..." Weiss said, trying her best to stay calm.

"Why?" Willow asked, throwing away a handful of paper towels.

"Your granddaughter decided she didn't want to wait," Weiss said, as she attempted to stand up and was successful.

"Wait... Has this been going on all day?" Willow asked, going over to help Weiss.

"Yes! But of course, I didn't notice until now." Weiss said, letting a few tears through.

"I'll call an ambulance," Willow said, "We have enough time, do we?"

"Yes... I hope we do at least," Weiss said, sitting back down on the floor, "Get Winter, please... She's been with me through this whole mess."

"Weiss... I don't want to leave you alone, especially as you are now!"

"Just go! Plus, I'm not even alone."

"Alright, I'll be right back!" Willow said, making a mad dash out of the bathroom. Weiss sighed, her hand getting her scroll from her pocket. Pass-by another few minutes and Willow came back with Winter.

"Weiss! You need to go, now." Winter said, helping Weiss stand up again.

"P-Please..." Weiss said, having Winter help her out to the entrance of the hall. Once they were outside there was already an ambulance. It really was happening, her daughter was going to be early. Very early.

The nurses came and surrounded Weiss and helped her into the ambulance, followed by Willow. Winter had to stay of course, which Weiss wished was not the case but she understood.

"Good luck..." Winter said as the ambulance doors closed.

The hospital wasn't even that far away from where they were already, so they were there within 5 minutes. Once off Weiss was immediately taken to the maternity ward. Once inside a room, Weiss felt a wash of relief fall over. She was where Wilma would be safe as soon as she entered the world. That wasn't the problem now though.

"Miss. Schnee." One of the nurses in the room said, "You're dilated too far to get a C-Section. Your child is coming very soon, but too soon that we would be able to even prep ourselves for a c-section. We need a few questions answered because we can't seem to find your records anywhere."

"I have a private doctor." Weiss confirmed, "If you need any information ask her.

"Well we need to know now, so the most important question to determine what we're going to even need is... How far along are you?" The nurse's words made Weiss flinch, to which Willow answered for her.

"She's only 28 weeks," Willow said, the nurse's slight smile dropped.

"Oh, Gods..." The nurse said, Weiss already knew it was bad but the nurse looked more scared than she was. The doctor picked up on what Willow said and began to order her nurses around.

"We have a preemie here, you need to set up everything properly in the NICU this instant, let them know we got a Schnee entering the NICU. And you all, get a bed ready and all your tools ready." She said, walking over to reassure Weiss, "You're in the best Atlas hospital, you two are going to be in good care."

"Thanks, Gods..." Weiss sighed, another pain filling her lower back.

"When was your last contraction?" Willow asked.

"2 minutes ago..." Weiss panted, "I want this kid out of me but I didn't mean this early!"

"Weiss, you can't change fate, you good as well know that," Willow said, taking Weiss' hand, "I've done this three times, I'll understand if you want to squeeze my hand."

"Thanks..." Weiss sighed, "I can't even imagine how bad it was for you."

"Winter was the only one that wasn't a C-Section because they weren't even a thing yet."

"Oh haha," Weiss said fake laughing, as sharp pains hit her stomach once more, to which she tightly squeeze Willow's hand.

"You have a strong grip," Willow snorted.

"I'm pretty sure that doesn't matter right now!" Weiss yelled at her mother.

"Weiss, you're okay. I'm here. I'm here for you baby girl..." Willow said, stroking Weiss' hair with her free hands, "You can do it."

"I know... But Wilma..." Weiss sighed, "I just hope everything will be okay."

"It will be if she's your daughter than she's going to be strong," Weiss' mother said, "Just like her mother."

"Miss. Schnee, I believe we can start to see the head." One of the nurses said.

"Oh, Gods damned," Weiss mumbled, repositioning herself slightly.

"Since we can see the head, you can go ahead and start pushing, if you need someone to tell you when to you can simply ask, are you okay doing it on your own."

"I can't do this..." Weiss muttered, closing her eyes and squeezing Willow's hand again in pure desperation to be relieved for her pain.

"You can, Weiss." Willow said, "You've gotten this far and you didn't even realize it yourself."

"I'm fully aware, mom!" Weiss said, "Please do that... It'd be helpful." She said to the nurse.

"None of us could have known if we'd actually thought about it," Willow sighed, "I should've been able to see those signs, I've been through this in some way three times."

"It's not your fault it's mine," Weiss said, feeling another sharp pain.

"Miss. Schnee, you're about to have to start pushing."

"Damnit!" Weiss yelled through gritted teeth.

"Alright on 3, you're going to push." The doctor said, looking up to reassure Weiss.

"1... 2... 3," Weiss felt an intense pressure as she pushed. She never expected it to hurt this bad. The following scene occurred for about 5 minutes before Weiss heard one of the most relieving phrases in her life.

"One last big push, and then your daughter will be here to meet you!" The nurse said. To which the doctor started counting down again.

"1, 2, and 3!" Weiss pushed as hard as she possibly could when suddenly the pressure towards her lower area almost disappeared. Weiss looked up to see a baby being held by the first doctor. The baby was put into a bed to quickly be cleaned and...

"Why isn't she crying?" Weiss said, fear coming over her.

"He isn't breathing properly," One of the nurses informed Weiss, "His lungs aren't fully developed."

"HE?!" Willow and Weiss both yelled.

"What did you expect?" The nurse asked.

"Well... The gender reveal said it was a girl..." Weiss said, facepalming through her tiredness, "We have to repaint that room now... All the clothes... And the name! What am I going to name him..."

"Well that doesn't matter right now," The doctor said, walking over with a swaddle of cloths and machines, "We have to take him to the NICU as soon as possible, but you deserve to hold him first. Don't touch his skin though." She handed Weiss the infant swaddled in blankets.

"Oh..." Weiss said, starting to cry as she embraced him in her arms for a second, "Hello... I'm your mommy! I'm going to be the best one you'll ever see, just know that. Welcome, Wiliem..."

"Wiliem?" Willow asked, "I think it suits him." Willow snorted before Weiss chuckled with her.

"Ma'am, we're going to need to take your baby now," The doctor said, taking Wiliem out of Weiss' arms.

"Alright, please... Take care of him..." Weiss asked.

"He's in good hands," Another nurse said.

"I'm sure of it," Weiss said, as the swarm of nurses and doctor left the room, leaving Weiss with just two nurses that were supposed to examine her now.

Weiss sighed looking to her mother, who had tears in her eyes as well.

"I haven't seen you cry in a while, mother." Weiss said, "It's kinda weird..."

"Hey! I'm just glad to know I'm the proud grandmother to my grandson," Willow said, "I can repaint the room and all of that. You won't need to help at all, dear."

"It's fine, mom. I can already tell I'm not staying in the hospital as long as him," Weiss said. She paused for a moment and looked back down again at her now deflated belly, "This was my fault..."

"No it was not, some babies are early, this wasn't rare," Willow said, taking a nearby chair and sitting down.

"I was the one who's been trying to balance all this company stuff, and especially today!" Weiss said, "I ruined today, today was supposed to be about Winter. That's why I didn't stop to think if I was in labor because I wasn't thinking about that!" Weiss slammed her fist into the bed. One of the nurses looked up from where they were.

"Don't do that, please. You need to rest, ma'am." The nurse said before going back to examining Weiss.

"Rest... That sounds nice... It's not like I just pushed a baby out of me or anything... An uncooked one at that..." Weiss said, snorting sleepily.

"You should sleep, dear," Willow said, putting her hand on Weiss' shoulder, "The medicine is kicking in now."

"The medicine? Oh, that stuff they gave me... I feel kind of funny now..." Weiss said, Willow could tell the pain killers were definitely taking hold of Weiss' state of mind, "Alright imma sleep... And don't you dare wake me up or I swear to Gods!" Weiss yelled before she closed her eyes, and soon enough she was asleep.


	9. Chapter 9

Weiss awoke a few hours later. Sitting up she tried to piece together where she was. It took her a while until she realized the familiar setting. She turned to pull out her scroll but realized she was in a hospital gown now.

"You're awake." Came a voice. Weiss was still kind of sleepy, so she didn't realize who it was until she looked to where the voice came from.

"Winter..." Weiss said, she looked her in the eyes and started sobbing. Winter came over to Weiss, hugging her. Weiss let her tears fall for who knows how long. After a while, she calmed down the flow of tears and Winter smiled at her, letting go of the hug.

"I'm glad you're okay." Winter said, "You know I would've come but I wasn't able to. Mother left soon after I arrived."

"Is Wiliem okay?" Weiss said.

"Wiliem?" Winter grew confused.

"Turns out he's a boy. But have they said anything to you?" Weiss asked.

"They haven't, sorry..." Winter said.

"No, I'm sorry for ruining today." Weiss apologized, Winter's eyes drifted to Weiss.

"Excuse me, Weiss? It wasn't ruined, it was made better," Winter said, "Not only did I get the job I've been promised since the beginning of my military career, but I also got an even better job along with it, being an aunt."

"But he..." Weiss's voice disappeared for a moment. Winter hugged Weiss again.

"He'll be okay, we can go visit him if you want," She suggested, taking Weiss' hand.

"I'm not supposed to leave my be-"

"That doesn't mean we can't use a wheelchair. Plus, I bet you'd like a little fresh air as well." Winter said, "Mom told me you thought it was your fault."

"So she tells you I'm upset but not that my child isn't the gender we expected him to be?" Weiss chuckled a little, "Sounds like Mom."

"So do you want to go?" Winter asked again.

"I mean if they'll let us..."

"Good. I'll be right back." Winter said before leaving Weiss alone in the room. She waited a few minutes before Winter entered the room again with what Weiss could describe as an entourage. The collection of people included a nurse who happened to have a wheelchair and her teammates.

"Weiss! You're alright!" Ruby said, rushing up to Weiss first and giving her a big hug.

"Ruby, I'm fine," Weiss said.

"Winter called us all as soon as you left for the hospital, we just managed to get here," Blake stated.

"Thankfully, Blake made me pack better than the last time I rushed to Atlas," Yang noted, to which Blake playfully rolled her eyes.

"So are we going to see Wilma?" Ruby asked, which Weiss knew to quickly correct her.

"Actually, it's Wiliem. Turns out he's a boy," Weiss said.

"Miss. Schnee, you should be able to try standing up to sit in the wheelchair, but your doctor has discouraged you to not walk for at least the next 36 hours." The nurse said, walking to Weiss's bedside so he'd be able to help if needed.

"Alright, thank you," Weiss said, she stood up and immediately sat down in the wheelchair. It'd felt funny to have stood up, but Weiss assumed it was just the heavy painkillers she was on at the moment. Her eyes followed the room to look at the faces of the others, which now had all turned into shock, "Your reaction is very underwhelming compared to me and my mom's."

"Well that's a shame I had to miss it," Winter noted, "But, fate had its course."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Weiss asked, Winter, stayed silent as the nursed rolled her out of the room. Ruby ended up straying over to Weiss's left side, opposite of Winter.

"I told you it was gonna be a boy," Ruby said, to which Weiss felt the temptation to shoot a bird arise but suppressed the urge, instead lightly slapping Ruby's arm, in which Ruby shifted the subject "How are you anyway?"

"Hard to tell..." Weiss said, "Just glad I'm not in pain physically anymore."

"What do you mean physically?" Yang jumped in, "Knowing Ruby, I'm pretty sure she was asking about emotionally."

"That's the thing, I don't know how I feel right now..." Weiss sighed, feeling a hand on her shoulder, "Blake?"

"You're healthy, and hopefully so is the baby." Blake stated, "I'm sure you've heard this before but you're probably one of the strongest people I know emotionally, you've gotten through stuff that's hard like this before, you can do it now."

"Thanks..." Weiss said the rest of the way to the NICU was mostly silent, aside from the slight chatter amongst her older sister and teammates. Soon enough they were there and Weiss felt a rush of anxiety run through her body. She visibly started to panic, sure this wasn't her fault but she couldn't help but feel guilty. She felt like someone's eyes had turned to worry at her but when she looked around she didn't see it placed on a single person's face. Before they went inside though, the nurse quickly stopped the group.

"I'm sorry, we only allow two other people besides the parents to visit at a time," she said, "Two of you will need to stay out here."

"Me and Blake can stay," Yang said, "Ruby and Winter are closest with Weiss, so it only feels right."

"Alright then," the nursed said, nodding to the couple before she pushed Weiss into the entrance of the NICU. Weiss almost yelped to step but knew that it wasn't any use since it was her child after all. She saw rooms, large enough just for a small patient, and a few moments later they stopped outside a door. Weiss took a moment while the nurse went to open the door to double take and read the sign. Written across it was her son's name. She gulped nervously as the door opened and the four walked into the room. In the center was an incubator, which was labeled once again with his name. Weiss clenched her eyes shut for a moment and reopened them when she was right in front of him. The number of tubes and machines hooked up to the small, frail body made her heartache. It'd only been a few hours and yet there was still a doctor in the room monitoring him. Winter was the first to even say something in the few minutes they'd already been there.

"He looks... Really small..." Winter said, "I didn't expect that..."

"What did you expect then?" Ruby asked, kneeling beside Weiss, "I personally think he's handsome, even if he looks really... Gooey?"

"Ruby now is not the time to point that out," Weiss said, her voice slightly cracking.

"Wait, Weiss are you okay?" Ruby asked.

"I'm fine," Weiss said, "I just don't know how to feel right now..."

"That's okay," Winter said, pulling up a chair to sit on the other side of Weiss, "He's at least got an amazing mom."

"Thanks," Weiss said losing most emotion to her vocals. She knew how she felt, but the last thing she needed right now was the blabbering about how it wasn't her fault. Weiss was aware it wasn't, but none of them even knew what this was like.

"Ilie really is special, just like you," Ruby said, looking to Weiss.

"Ilie?" Weiss said, "His name is Wiliemmmm... Nevermind I see what you did."

"I think Wiliem is too formal, Ilie suits him more, he's your son after all," Ruby noted. Weiss couldn't help but feel slightly confused by this interaction, but honestly...

"That wasn't polite," Winter said, cutting Weiss's thoughts off, "But I can't blame you, Wiliem is differently spelled so it's not like the nickname makes no sense."

"It doesn't really bother me," Weiss informed, "I don't mind, it's not offensive to me."

"Oh," Winter said, "Well, you probably should let your teammates see him."

"If you insist, can you get them, Ruby?" Weiss requested, Ruby nodded before standing up and leaving the room alongside Winter. In the few minutes in between Weiss felt appropriate to ask about his current condition.

"How is he right now?" Weiss had asked. The doctor took a look at a computer before turning to her.

"He's stable right now, but he's going to need close moderation. Currently, he's not healthy, as his lungs and heart are in desperate need to develop, but he's stronger than most premies born at this age, I'd say as of now, he has a higher chance of survival than the average." He concluded, "More than likely, he'll be home by September at the earliest."

"Alright, thank you," Weiss said, which the conversation followed with Blake and Yang entering the room. Weiss turned and noticed Yang had tears in her eyes.

"I'm not allowing Yang in this side of the hospital ever again aside from seeing you and Wiliem..." Blake concluded.

"Why?" She asked, Blake, facepalmed without saying a word, but gestured to her wife.

"I forgot how adorable babies are!" Yang said, "Listen, Blake, I'm telling you one day we're going to have a kid and we'll have a dog and name him Drei!"

"Oh, I guess you two are having that conversation later," Weiss chuckled a little, the day had been pretty bleak for her but this was pretty amusing and made the moment a nice lighthearted memory for her.

"No, I already told her it's going to be at least 4 years before we even consider it." Blake stated, "I have nothing against kids, it's the fact we're busy that's the set-back."

"Look who's talking," Weiss giggled, "Anyways you guys want to... You know..."

"Please!~" Yang said, pacing over to beside Weiss and her face turning from pure joy to worry, "Oh."

"What's wrong?" Weiss snapped, "People and their expectations today."

"Well, it's just a bit shocking..." Blake said, standing beside, "None of us could've known, when me and Yang got a call from Winter basically ordering us to come here, we were really shocked."

"You should've seen my mother's face," Weiss noted, "But she was the second person who even knew..."

"The first being?" Yang asked.

"Myself." Weiss sighed, "And of course, if I'd stayed in my seat and hadn't needed to use the bathroom, I'm sure by the time we'd have noticed it would've been too late."

"But you didn't."

"True."

The room stayed silent for a minute and Weiss soon enough requested to be alone again. At least for the next 15 minutes. She stared blankly at Wiliem.

"Ilie..." Weiss corrected herself out loud, she honestly liked the nickname but... It felt weird to not say Wiliem. She'd figured she'd give it a couple of days and see if she even liked the nickname. She lightly hummed, longing to hold him. Longing to wake up from this horrific dream. Longing that this never even happened.

Wait... No, I don't regret this! Weiss, what the hell is wrong with you? Stop thinking like that! Now you are starting to sound like father, damnit!

And what about Henry?

Imagine if society knew about that. That Weiss had been such a slut. She would have her reputation shattered. But even then, Weiss was thankful it was him, and not a total snobby bitch. Weiss's thoughts rushed all over the place that she didn't notice someone else had entered the room.

"Weiss?" Henry was standing right behind her, Weiss turned around and squealed a little, startled in all honesty.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't notice you were there." Weiss said, "What are you doing here?"

"If I said exactly why out loud, I'm sure you'd kill me," He said, "But you know why right?"

"Yeah, I'm okay with it. Turns out he is a boy, funny isn't it." She lightly chuckled, "You'd be surprised to hear how healthy he is."

"Really?" Henry said, taking the seat Winter had originally sat in and turning it.

"Mhm... As of now, I should be able to take him home in September."

"I wanted to talk to you about something... That's really only for our ears..." He admitted.

"We can talk about it back in my room, I'm sorry but they're supposed to keep a close watch on him," Weiss said.

"Alright." He said, "So what did you end up naming him."

"Wiliem... But honestly I kind of like calling him Ilie, it's simple and straight to the point," she said, staring at Ilie.

"I think that works... Ilie is a unique name, just like his-"

"Shush!" Weiss knew what he was about to say, "Don't say that, it sounds weird. Plus." Weiss guided his eyes to the nurse and doctor still in the room.

"Oh yeah..." Henry sighed.

After a few minutes of them chatting Weiss and him went back to her hospital room, where they finally could have a well-needed conversation.

"How do you expect to keep up that Neptune is his father?" Henry first asked. Weiss knew this conversation was going to be filled with awkwardness, but it was necessary.

"I don't know, hopefully until I die." Weiss grumbled, "I don't want Ilie to know ever about this, I want his life to be normal. Something I didn't have."

"But lying to him?" Henry pointed out, "You could eventually tell him and let him personally meet me?"

"No." Weiss stopped.

"Why? I just simply think that explaining it to him would be simple." He stated.

"I don't think it'd work, what if he told someone?"

"You wouldn't trust him?"

"I don't know! We don't even know if he'll make it out of this hospital!" Weiss yelled, a tear forming in her right eye. She wiped it away, sniffling, "Sorry..."

"It's fine but, what if you and Neptune don't work out? What do you tell the public then?"

"That our relationship didn't work out?"

"And how much more would that ruin Wiliem if he found out the truth."

"Henry, you don't even know much about our relationship, we've dated for 2 and a half months now, he's been a pretty good partner so far."

"But what if-"

"Henry, I swear to gods!" Weiss grunted.

"You should consider it though, there was a much easier solution that you seem to not understand, and now you've gotten yourself stuck in this mess."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I mean if you'd watched what you'd drank."

"Excuse me, how I handle my life is none of your business."

"At least you would've been able to remember!"

"That'd made the situation worse!"

"I know but the answer would'v-"

"Henry Marigold stop talking."

"Why?"

"I can see what the hell you've wanted this entire time." Weiss said, staring straight into his golden eyes, "You just wanted to get with me!"

"Excuse me?" Henry said.

"You took advantage of the situation so you could try getting with me, I can tell you now that it will never happen!"

"What?"

"You know if your theory of me and Neptune not working out had happened a few minutes ago I would've considered you. But now, I can tell, you haven't changed a bit. You just want an extension to my heritage!"

"That's not what I-"

"No! Get out! And you can forget seeing my son."

"Our son?"

"My son. Get out of here, you're not allowed to speak to him." Weiss firmly stated. Henry looked shocked but quickly got out of the room before the situation got any worse.

Weiss knew it wasn't true.

But the look he kept giving her told her gut that she shouldn't trust him, and if he was someone she couldn't trust, then he shouldn't be allowed anywhere near her son.

The longer she thought about it though, she realized she'd been dumb.

The look.

That wasn't lusting foresay.

That was worry and longing.

If anyone knew how Weiss was feeling it was him.

And she'd been stupid enough to shut him out.


	10. Chapter 10

"Of course..." Weiss said as she hugged her mom tightly, "I'm sorry... But we can't change the past."

"You should apologize to Henry..." Willow said.

"I know... I just..." Weiss sighed, "I feel bad..."

"It's okay," Willow rubbed Weiss's head, "You'll be okay..."

"Thanks..." Weiss said, "For painting..."

"Hehe... You're welcome..."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

It'd been about a week since Weiss had even gotten home and she'd been in her room for most of it. Her scroll sat alone on her desk, terrified to check it half the time. Weiss had felt even more guilty any time Henry had tried to contact her, she'd tell him they'd talk about it but it'd been days since then. At that moment in time though, she sat outside on her balcony, staring out into the Atlas June. It wasn't hot, but it wasn't cold either, it was comfortable weather.

She heard her scroll fall to the floor as ringing followed it, she stood up and rushed inside to see who was calling.

It was Henry.

She told him this morning they would talk as soon as he could, and now was the time. Her hands shook as she hit the answer button and put her phone on speaker.

"Hello..." Henry's voice rang and Weiss went back outside and sat down in her chair again.

"Hey..." Weiss sighed, "I wanted to apologize... For last week... I think I really just... I didn't want to accept what had happened and the shock made me snap... I'm not saying that it's not my fault, I'm saying that I had been in a bad condition to have been perfectly sane."

"It's fine, I hated to see you like that," He said, "You looked upset, like you wanted to cry."

"I did cry." Weiss confirmed, "Everything just hasn't been that great recently, at least I'm not as sore anymore..."

"Well, how are you doing? I mean you kind of... You know..." He avoided the topic in his wording.

"Meh, physically everything... Down there... It feels weird now. And a few other places are confused to what happened." Weiss didn't directly state what she meant but she knew her breasts had almost seemed to be confused about what the actual hell had occurred when Wiliem was born. Ilie. Weiss had decided to stick with the nickname...

"Emotionally is what I meant, but if you don't want to talk about it, can I know if Wiliem is okay?" Henry mentioned. Weiss looked at her scroll.

"He's doing decent, they still think he could..." Weiss shakingly took a deep breath, "Sorry... I just don't like to think about it... But I actually started calling him Ilie."

"That's cool." He said, "Do you want to..."

"Talk about what happened? Yeah..." Weiss sighed, she knew the conversation was not one she wanted to mention at the moment, but it was needed.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Weiss had been sitting in her room most of Christmas morning. Her anxiety was through the roof. Ilie was coming home that day. It'd been 6 months since he was born, and he'd made a bad turn in his development when his heart stopped suddenly on Ruby's birthday. He ended up miraculously getting a heart transplant and had recovered within the past 2 months. He was finally going to be able to come home though. It wouldn't be until the evening though, and to be honest, Weiss was glad because her family's Christmas could have more of an assortment of people, Winter, her mother, and brother. She also could have Neptune and Ruby.

Thinking about it now, Weiss was glad she and Neptune reconnected because Neptune had ended up admitting that he thought the situation was kind of convenient, as he had always wanted to have a kid. Weiss remembered laughing at the dorky comment. That was not the main thing right now. It was probably around 3 in the afternoon now, so Weiss had already eaten lunch.

Her door creaked open as she looked over and saw Winter and Whitley at the entrance. Whitley had a neatly folded set of clothes in his arms. Weiss stood up and walked up to hug them, but when she did she noticed the clothes were way too small to be hers.

"Are those for Ilie?" Weiss said, examining the outfit a bit more. She recognized almost instantaneously that the outfit was one she had seen but was disappointed wasn't being made anymore when she saw it in an old kids magazine from back when Weiss was little.

"Mhm, we heard that they didn't make it so we had it custom made just for Ilie." Winter said, "I feel like everyone in this family forgets we can do that..." Weiss laughed a little at Winter's comment.

"Well, are you two ready to go?" Weiss asked. They were going with her to get Ilie and was she excited. Her elder and younger sibling nodded and soon enough they headed out the door.

Pass by around 2 hours and Weiss was in Ilie's room he was kept in. She held the infant close to her chest while he squirmed, trying to find a comfortable spot to be held. The doctor was explaining to her that he was still going to take some medicine for his heart problems for a few more weeks and that he'd need to still be watched carefully for any sudden changes in his attitude.

Weiss took in the information as she signed his discharge paperwork. Ilie wasn't making much noise, but since he was still little his hands were everywhere. Soon enough though, the paperwork was done and Ilie was strapped into his carrier, and Winter and Whitley were aweing at the tiny Schnee. They headed back into the car and Weiss sat in the back with Ilie, keeping an eye on him on the way home.

A few hours later, just after they celebrated Christmas, Ruby was getting set up in the guest room while Weiss talked to her, still holding Ilie as he slept in Weiss's arms. Ruby was planning on staying for the next 2 weeks in order to keep Weiss in check.

"You've been glued to him this entire time," Ruby commented, "It's kinda cute."

"Hey, you'd do the same thing if your child was in the hospital for half a year!" Weiss pointed out.

"Weiss, I already told you I don't want my own kids," Ruby said, "Even if I do get with someone eventually."

"I know..." Weiss said, feeling Ilie squirm in her arms. He'd woken up and was softly crying, "What happened, sweetie?" He continued to cry as Ruby came over, "Do you want to eat?"

"Weiss... He looks sad!" Ruby said, trying to pull a funny face. He looked at Ruby, wide-eyed but startled and cried louder, "Well, shit..."

"Why don't we just head back to his nursery?" Weiss suggested, "He's likely hungry since he hasn't eaten in a few hours."

"Oh, that's likely it then," Ruby said. Weiss walked out of the room and down the hall, Ruby in tow close behind. When they entered the nursery Weiss sat down in the rocking chair and grabbed a blanket to cover herself. Throwing it around her top chest area she moved her top down a little to let Ilie eat.

"Dream of anything..." Ruby had come behind Weiss and Ilie and almost made Weiss jump up in shock. Ruby was singing a lullaby? "I'll make it all come true, everything you need is all I'll have for you."

"I'm forever, always by your side. Whenever you need a friend, I'm never far behind!"

"If the stars all fall, when there's no more light, and the moon should crumble it will be alright~" Weiss cut into Ruby's lullaby, remembering the tune and singing that part. They began to harmonize. Well, Weiss did since she knew how to.

"Don't you worry about the dark, I will light up the night with the love in my heart, I will burn like the sun, I will keep you safe and warm."

"Like the smell of a rose on a summer's day, I will be there to take all your feels away, with the touch of my hand I will turn your light to..."

"Gold..." Ruby finished solely and Weiss giggled lightly with her, and soon enough after a long while of lullaby duets, he was asleep in Weiss's arms.

Weiss never expected her life to come to this, but now, she didn't regret it a bit. She had the new light in her life, and that was the innocent being in her arms. Her son.


End file.
